Podcast: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Gets Uncertified

In one corner, you have the Matt who loves the Alien franchise. In the other, you have the Matt who loves director Fede Álvarez. Could Alien: Romulus possibly live up to that kind of hype? In the latest episode of the Uncertified podcast series, Matthew Monagle and Matt Donato tackle Álvarez's Alien: Romulus, a gutsy attempt to stitch together the entire Alien universe on a direct-to-Hulu budget.

Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus follows a group of young colonists who decide to steal their future from evil corporation Weyland-Yutani. Rain and Andy, her android “sibling,” are recruited by their friends to break into a dead space station and steal the resources they need to travel to a nearby system. But when the station powers up, the group soon learns that there are more than just corpses on board. Directed and co-written by splatter maestro Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus is the latest attempt to reboot the franchise for a new generation.

In this short excerpt from the episode, Matt Monagle explains why Alien: Romulus suffers from one terrible and loud creative decision:

"You can't bring back somebody who's dead. You can't bring back Ian Holm to play the character. And if you are gonna bring back Ian Holm, I don't care if they did a lot of it through practical. It looks like shit. It looks so bad for the entire movie. And the problem is you didn't need to make it that character. You could have hired any 50-year-old British actor with a paunch."

The Alien: Romulus episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or the podcast platform of your choice.