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Alien: Romulus director "wasn't 100% happy" with one controversial part of the film, and has "fixed" it using a Lord of the Rings prop

I "wasn't 100% happy" with this Alien: Romulus scene either, so maybe I need to watch it again.

Director Fede Alvarez on the set of 20th Century Studios' ALIEN: ROMULUS
Image credit: Murray Close (20th Century Studios)

Alien: Romulus was a great film - living up to the franchise's roots, and exceeding expectations after the last few outings. But there's one part of the movie which some of us (yes, me) didn't quite enjoy as much - and director Fede Alvarez felt the same, and went back to fix it for the recent home video release.

Spoilers ahead for Alien: Romulus.

What we're talking about is the surprise appearance of the android Ash from the original film, played by the late Ian Holm. To bring the character back to life, Alvarez and his team used a mixture of CGI and puppetry - and in the theatrical release, it was a lot of CGI. Too much CGI... or at least too rushed.

"We just ran out of time in post-production to get it right," Alvarez tells Empire magazine. "I wasn’t 100% happy with some of the shots, where you could feel a bit more the CG intervention. So, for people that react negatively, I don’t blame them."

That nagged at the director, to the point that he nagged 20th Century Studios for money to go back to work more with the CGI and the Ian Holm puppet that was made from a head cast of the actor for the Lord of the Rings movies. 

"We fixed it. We made it better for the release right now," says Alvarez. "I convinced the studio we need to spend the money and make sure we give the companies that were involved in making it the proper time to finish it and do it right. It’s so much better."

“[Animatronic puppeteer] Shane Mahan actually did this animatronic of Ian Holm based on a head cast from Lord of the Rings, and that was the only one in existence,” says Alvarez. "What we did [for the home entertainment version] was revert a lot more to the puppet. It’s way better.” 

So that's a Bilbo Baggins cameo in Alien: Romulus, if you think about it hard enough. 


Here's how to watch all the Aliens movies in order.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant: Chris Arrant is the Popverse's Editor-in-Chief. He has written about pop culture for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel, Newsarama, CBR, and more. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. (He/him)

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