The teaser for Alien: Romulus has revealed a lot, thus the winning formula of the first Alien film cannot be replicated in any way by the Alien reboot. Following the 1979 premiere of director Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking sci-fi horror film Alien, other films attempted to emulate its commercial success. With differing degrees of success, the remaining Alien films all built upon Scott’s setup, although a number of Alien knockoffs existed before even the first Alien sequel, 1986’s Aliens. None of the attempts to mimic the distinct tone and style of Alien, including Galaxy of Terror, Creature, Inseminoid, Xtro, and Star Crystal, were successful.

While some of Alien’s sequels are great and others are less impressive, none of the franchise’s later offerings replicated the tone and style of Alien exactly. Director James Cameron’s Aliens was more bombastic and action-forward, while David Fincher’s infamously troubled Alien 3 was darker and meaner than Scott’s original movie. Even Scott’s own Alien prequels were more ambitiously weird and philosophical than his admirably simple original space-set horror movie. Now, 2024’s upcoming Alien reboot Alien: Romulus won’t be able to copy Alien’s setup either. However, this is secretly a good thing for the new movie.