Alien: Isabela Merced joins Cailee Spaeny in Fede Alvarez’s Xenomorph movie

Back in November, we heard that Cailee Spaeny (The Craft: Legacy) had been cast in the new Alien movie that’s set to be directed by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead 2013, Don’t Breathe). A movie that may or may not end up being called Alien: Romulus. Now Deadline reports that Spaeny is being joined in the cast by Isabela Merced, whose credits include Rosaline, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Sweet Girl, and the 2022 version of Father of the Bride. Details on the characters being played by Spaeny and Merced are being kept under wraps.

This new Alien movie is coming to us from Momentum and 20th Century Studios, with Ridley Scott producing through his Scott Free banner. It’s being made for release through the Hulu streaming service, much like the Predator franchise addition Prey that was released last year (and turned out to be one of the more well-received entries in that series).

Very little is known what Alvarez has in store for us with Alien: Romulus. Alvarez will be directing the film from a screenplay he was written with his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues. When the project was announced near the start of 2022, it was said that Alvarez pitched this idea for a new Alien movie to Ridley Scott years ago. Whatever the idea was, it stuck with Scott. So in late 2021, he called Alvarez and asked if he still wanted to make an Alien movie. Clearly, the answer was yes. 20th Century Studios division president Steve Asbell told The Hollywood Reporter that they picked up the project “purely off the strength of Fede’s pitch. It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before.“

Asbell added that, since the movie is being made for Hulu instead of a theatrical release, “It’s not a film that has to be all things to all people with those gargantuan budgets. They get to be authentically what they are. And this is closer to its genre roots.“

The story Alvarez and Sayagues have crafted for this movie is not connected to the other films in the Alien franchise.

Are you looking forward to Alvarez’s Alien movie? What do you think about Cailee Spaeny and Isabela Merced leading the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.