Alien: Romulus has now landed in cinemas, and you might be wondering about the meaning behind the title.
As expected, Romulus does refer to the name of a location in the movie, although it's not a ship as such. Romulus is one of the two modules on the decommissioned station Renaissance, where the movie takes place.
That's similar to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. But like with those two previous movies, Alien: Romulus also has a hidden meaning that ties into the themes of the movie.
"All the main relationships in the story are sibling relationships from surrogate, from biological siblings, so there's different angles on that," director and co-writer Fede Alvarez told Digital Spy.
Related: Alien: Romulus runtime confirmed
"There's many themes in the movie, but one of them is what it means to be someone's sibling, what it truly means. What are your responsibilities for that? Do you have any or not? They should take care of you; you should take care of them. How do you see it?
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"Romulus and Remus obviously are a story of siblinghood that didn't end well. Romulus murdered Remus, so there's many, many elements that are connected with that creational myth of Rome."
And if you're wondering why the movie isn't called Alien: Remus, then there's an Easter egg hidden in the title too behind that choice.
"[Romulus] has seven letters, and this is part seven," Alvarez revealed.
Related: The complete Alien timeline
Unlike Prometheus and Alien: Covenant which were set before Alien, the new movie takes place between Alien and Aliens.
Alvarez previously confirmed it's roughly 20 years after Alien, but the movie still features nods to Aliens: "I see it more as it takes place after 1, which means the same... It's kind of the child of both movies combined visually, aesthetically and story-wise."
Fans don't have to worry about Alien: Romulus breaking canon either as Alvarez made sure to use Xenopedia, including the wider non-movie canon, to ensure he didn't.
Alien: Romulus is out now in cinemas.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
