Disney turning the ‘Alien’ franchise into a teen slasher goes down every bit as well as expected

As one of the longest-running and most iconic sci-fi franchises in the industry – never mind one that’s been gathering new fans for generations – the prospect of Disney breathing new life into Alien as the legendary property’s new overlords has been creating plenty of worries among longtime Xenomorph enthusiasts.

Director Fede Álvarez might have plenty of experience in the horror genre, where he’s delivered solid work through The Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe in particular, but the first plot details for his upcoming Alien: Romulus have ignited a panic among supporters that the Mouse House is going to do exactly what everyone thought it would do with the series.

Caliee Spaeny will be leading the ensemble with Isabela Merced in support, but it’s the additions of David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu that’s creating worries, although we should note that it’s got nothing to do with the young performers themselves, but rather the scenario they’re set to find themselves in.

20th Century Studios has seen Alien: Romulus described as focusing “a group of young people on a distant world find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe”. As you can imagine, Alien being rebooted into a teen slasher story has been received exactly as well as you’d imagine.

For all we know, Romulus could knock it out of the park and end up doing for Alien what Prey did for Predator, but winning over the skeptics is one of the hardest things to do in Hollywood, especially when it comes to such a well-known IP that’s carved out a niche for itself as being capable of delivering just as many classics as it has outright stinkers.