Warning: The below story contains FULL SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus.
Alien: Romulus hit theaters this past weekend to positive reviews and a strong start at the box office, but one aspect of the movie has left a sour taste in some moviegoers’ mouths.
Specifically, at about the midway point of the movie (and this is your last spoiler warning!), a new synthetic named Rook is introduced, bearing the likeness of the late Ian Holm. In the 1979 original Alien film, Holm, who passed away in 2020, played the treacherous android Ash.
It’s already inspired some passionate reactions online, who argue the use of CGI to replicate a late actor’s likeness is disrespectful or unethical. IGN’s Jesse Schedeen called it “a distracting and, frankly, unnecessary addition to the film.”
But director Fede Álvarez is defending the inclusion, telling The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that it was Alien director Ridley Scott who actually wanted to see another version of Holm’s character.
“It was unfair that the likeness of Ash was never used again. Lance Henriksen has been used a few times. Michael Fassbender got to do it a few times,” Álvarez told the outlet, referencing other synthetics who reappeared in the series. “So when we started thinking about the likeness of this character with Ridley, it was going to be a torso [and head] that we would build. So it didn’t need to be the likeness of a current working actor, and Ridley was the one who said, ‘Ash was always the best. He needs to make a comeback.’ ”
According to the THR interview, the Alien: Romulus team also received approval from Holm’s estate to include his likeness in the film. The character was built in Romulus using a mix of practical effects, CG, and deepfake AI technology.
Álvarez elaborated further in another recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, saying he had spoken to Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, who “felt he would have loved to be a part of this.”
“We did it all with a lot of respect and always with the authorization of his family, his children and his widow, who said, ‘We would love to see his likeness again,’ ” Alvarez said.
Scott, meanwhile, told the LA Times that he saw Rook as a way to “dip into some of the artifacts from the very first film.”
“Ian Holm suddenly appearing as a company on-board robot — that’s bit of an old-fashioned word there — was a great idea,” Scott told the outlet. “That’s how ideas work. Grand ideas evolve. The next step is ‘Blade Runner,’ where you get Roy Batty as an evolved replicant, a human who’s not human, but actually in essence, in old terminology, a robot.”
Still, the debate over using technology to bring back actors’ likenesses after they’ve died rages on. Despite the controversy, Alien: Romulus has received a positive response from critics, and IGN gave it an 8/10 in our review, writing that its “back-to-basics approach to blockbuster horror boils everything fans love about the tonally-fluid franchise into one brutal, nerve-wracking experience.”
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
