How the Alien: Romulus Xenomorph was made

Alien: Romulus is storming the box office like the franchise's legendary Xenomorph, and while the creature has long terrorised audiences it was brought to life in unexpected ways for the new film.

Director Fede Álvarez was keen for Alien: Romulus to invoke the classic feel of the franchise through the creature that appears in the film, and he did so by bringing back two members of the Aliens team: Alec Gillis and Shane Mahan. The creature effects veterans came on board to help build and operate the Xenomorphs, facehuggers, and chestbursters.

Read more: Alien: Romulus stars first reactions to seeing the Xenomorph

Speaking at a press conference, Álvarez shared what "a dream" it was to work with the pair together and also shared how important it was to do everything for real: "The rule of thumb is if it can be done practical it would be done practical, which is not always the case.

"I mean, Hollywood can sometimes be very lazy, I say lazy in the fact that it's not because CG's cheaper, it's not, it's actually more expensive, it's just quicker. It saves you a headache on set, but I didn't get myself into this art just to say, 'this next scene the monster comes through the door, shoot the door. OK, done, move on', that's a f**king boring thing to do.

"You bring the one tonne animatronic believe me it's going to suck all your day to try to get him to go through the door, but, man, when you see it you're there."

Alien: Romulus used both an animatronic and an actor to bring the Xenomorph to life on set, the way Álvarez chose which to prioritise depended on what "the task" and "the shock" was on the day.

"So in most of the close-ups you see there, when there's a lot of facial animation, it is an animatronic," the filmmaker explains. "When there was more movement, when they were crawling, that usually is a performer. It really depends on the shot, but we did have the guy."

Gillis and Mahan, who both worked on James Cameron's 1986 sequel Aliens, came on board to make the Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus, while Weta Workshop also worked on the film. This, Álvarez said, is not usual for a film production, because it tends to be the case that one company will be selected to make the creatures not multiple.

"I wanted all of them to be involved and I wanted above all things, which we achieved that it was such a dream, was Alec and Shane to work together again," Álvarez explained. "Because both of them have two of the biggest companies, they just competed with each other all the time but they're like brothers, they grew up next to each other.

"Shane hadn't done [a Xenomorph] since Aliens, because Alec did most of the [films] that followed, and Shane built the queen.

Read more: Where does Alien: Romulus fit in the Alien timeline?

"He couldn't wait to go back, and the thing he wanted to do the most was to put the dome back on because the story Shane tells the most about Aliens was that early on Cameron goes, 'you know what get rid of the f**king dome', because he didn't want it to look silly. So the day we had that first meeting I was like 'I gotta put the dome back on' he was like 'yea, I'm gonna be there to do it!'"

Álvarez added: "Also the beauty of it was that they will help each other, they have their shots and their teams but... there was a moment where Alec was —I think it was with a chestburster— and we just needed eight people puppeteering that thing, it's all practical. Shane goes like, 'oh, let's go help out Alec',

"It was like [watching] Shane and his team walking in slow motion, he just goes in there and gets under the table. To me, to see both of them together shoulder to shoulder working it was what I wanted. It was, for me, the thing that I never dreamed in my life that I was going to be able to see."

It was just one aspect of Álvarez's intention of doing everything he could practically in order to make the audience believe that what they're seeing is real: "[The scenes were] always done with that approach to make sure, ideally, we fool you.

"Which is what I think movies have, to a certain extent, stopped trying to do. Not to go at Marvel or DC movies, but I don't think they're trying to be photorealistic. They're fun and colourful, but no one is trying to get you to believe that it's in there —the creature or whatever it is— which I think the best movies used to do.

"Like 'I can't believe I'm seeing this', and it seems like movies have given up for the most part on that. For Alien, you need to believe what you're looking at is real, otherwise it just doesn't work."

Alien: Romulus is out now in cinemas.