More aliens are coming.
Earlier this week, reports surfaced on the next standalone Predator movie, “Predator Badlands,” landing a theatrical release date on Nov. 7, 2025. Following that exciting development, 20th Century Studios honcho Steve Asbell has now confirmed an Alien: Romulus follow-up is now in development.
The exciting bit of news comes from The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with the Fox executive, who has been guiding the studio’s biggest properties into a new era under Disney. The juicy slate includes new Avatar, Planet of the Apes, Alien, and Predator movies, and now that all of them have released new installments in the post-Disney-acquisition age, it’s time to keep the ball rolling. The entire interview is well worth a complete read, as it also includes information on an extra Predator movie that’s been made in secret and what’s next for other major properties.
Spoilers ahead for ‘Alien: Romulus.’
When it comes to Alien’s big-screen future (remember there’s an Alien TV show coming next year too), Asbell started by explaining why they chose to move Romulus from its initial straight-to-streaming plans to a full-blown theatrical release that ended up being a huge success for both the studio and Disney: “It was started as a streaming movie because we started development when we were in COVID and it wasn’t clear what our strategy was going to be theatrical or streaming.”
He also pointed out all of their recent movies have been made “with the same care and curation” regardless of how they were distributed, which isn’t wrong – 2022’s Hulu-exclusive Prey was also fantastic.
Of course, after Alien: Romulus impressed most critics and horror fanatics — while turning a pretty decent profit thanks to smart budgeting — there’s fresh excitement in the air and around the enduring sci-fi franchise. Is its next step another standalone, Ripley-less story? Or are we going to follow the survivors of this last romp into their next chapter?
It sounds like the current plan is to do the latter: “We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on.
“The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, ‘Wow, where do people want to see them go next?’ We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is,” confirmed Asbell.
THR also took this opportunity to ask the executive about a potential return to Alien vs. Predator, and – as many of us suspected – it sure sounds like conversations could’ve happened already. When asked if we’ll see another Alien vs. Predator, Asbell replied simply with “Probably.”
Still, don’t expect it anytime soon: “If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine … perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”