Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus!
Summary
I made sure to rewatch a fewAlienmovies before checking outAlien: Romulus, and now I’m really glad I decided to watch two of them in particular:PrometheusandAlien: Covenant. As soon as it was clear that Fede Álvarez’s movie was set betweenAlienandAliens, it became apparent that it was likely to hold connections to Ridley Scott and James Cameron’s films. Since they are inarguably the twobestAlienmovies, I was always going to watch them again just to experience their greatness once more and refresh my mind on the franchise’s history.
The question that I was really left with iswhich otherAlienmovies to watch beforeAlien: Romulus. With theAlien vs. Predatormovies easily out of the picture, there was also no immediate need it seemed to doAlien 3andAlien: Resurrectionsif time became an issue. But, my rewatch plan did include revisitingPrometheusandAlien: Covenant. This was partially just to see the newer installments again, but also due to a greater chance that they could connect toAlien: Romulussince they predate the film. That proved to be the right move byAlien: Romulus' ending.
Prometheus & Alien: Covenant Are Massively Important To Alien: Romulus
Romulus Ties Into Ridley Scott’s Prequels
On top ofAlien: Romulus' heavy connections toAlien, the movie is also very clearly building off the story Ridley Scott began inPrometheusand continued intoAlien: Covenant. The full scale of the movie’s ties to the earlier films are established onceIan Holm’s Rookenters the picture and fills audiences and the characters in on what theRenaissancespace station has been working on. He reveals that the labs found the key to life within the body of Big Chap, leading them to harvest and develop a new black goo reminiscent of the Engineers' creation inPrometheus.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are both streaming on Hulu
Speaking of the Engineers, knowledge of them is even important when it comes to the movie’s final reveal.Alien: Romulus' new Xenomorph, a human-alien hybrid born from Kay after she injects herself with the black goo, has unmistakable physical similarities to the life-creating and destroying forcesPrometheusintroduced.Although more human in its overall appearance thanAlien: Covenant’s Neomorph, I was ultimately surprised by how much it also looked like the Engineers and how Álvarez decided to bridge the two parts of the franchise timeline together.
Alien: Romulus' Biggest Twists Are Improved By Prometheus & Covenant
Alien: Romuluscould still work as a movie without any pre-existing knowledge fromPrometheusorAlien: Covenant, but seeing the movies certainly helped my experience with its biggest twists. Human-alien hybrids have been part of the franchise sinceAlien Resurrection, but the design was massively different, and I enjoyed the Engineer connection. Similarly, the black goo could just feel like a new plot MacGuffin for the purposes ofAlien: Romulusto anyone who didn’t see or doesn’t remember Ridley Scott’s previous films.
I did not expectAlien: Romulusto return to the black goo plot point or continue the themes of creating life, as David took to the next level inAlien: Covenant, when I decided to watch those movies again. The decision to do so was more built around my own interest in wanting to watch them again and reconsider their place in the franchise. But now that I’ve seenAlien: Romulusand the big twists it has to offer, I feel confident in saying that they are improved by seeingPrometheusandAlien: Covenantpreviously.
