Alien: Romulus heads home — streams on Disney+ from January 15th

In space, no-one can hear you scream. But on your sofa in the comfort of your own living room? That’s a totally different matter.

Keep that in mind as Alien: Romulus finally hits home streaming this month, heading to the Disney+ movies catalogue on January 15th in the UK.

A blockbuster comeback for the Alien franchise following the so-so Prometheus and Alien: Covenant efforts from series creator Ridley Scott, Fede Alvarez’s horror-fuelled 2024 semi-sequel-semi-prequel was a smash hit. It had made more than $350 million at the box office by the end of the year, against a production budget of $80 million, securing the chest-bursting series’s future.

We loved Romulus here at Shortlist — playing out like a teen slasher movie, but with cyborgs and extraterrestrial horrors, it walked the fine line between the dread of the original movie and the action of James Cameron’s Aliens sequel. Fitting then, that its story of teen colonist looking to escape a doomed space station, was set between those two first films in the series.

Starring Cailee Spaeny, who comfortably filled a role similar to that of Sigourney Weaver’s iconic Ripley, it was the performance of David Jonsson as the android Andy, at turns both vulnerable and deadly, that stole the show. Incidentally, this week Jonsson was nominated for a BAFTA EE Rising Star Award, alongside Marisa Abela, Mikey Madison, Jharrel Jerome and Nabhaan Rizwa.

It’ll be fun watching Alien: Romulus sit alongside Disney’s more traditionally-family friendly fare on the House of Mouse’s streaming platform — Romulus was distributed by 20th Century Fox, now a subsidiary of Disney — and there’s only more to come.

Later this year will see the release of Alien: Earth, a TV series from Noah Hawley (Fargo), that’ll act as a prequel to the original film. It’s also set to join the ranks of Disney+ shows later this year.

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