Reviving surprise character for Alien: Romulus was Ridley Scott’s idea, says director

Fede Alvarez speaks to The National about how the character returned to the franchise, and why his film is a reaction to the state of blockbuster filmmaking

Warning: this article contains spoilers

In one of the biggest surprises of Alien: Romulus, Ash, the android antagonist played by Ian Holm in the first Alien released in 1979, returns.

The move is one of the most hotly debated choices of the new film, a legacy sequel directed by Fede Alvarez and produced by series originator Ridley Scott, particularly because Holm died in 2020.

This is not without precedent. In recent years, Hollywood has increasingly turned to CGI technology to revive actors in what is often referred to as “digital necromancy”, a move that has become particularly controversial because it has been done without family permission on occasion, as was reportedly the case for Christopher Reeve’s cameo as Superman in last year's The Flash.

Speaking to The National, Alvarez is clear that Holm’s likeness has been used with the utmost respect and care to all involved, and that the idea originated from Scott, the man who cast Holm in the original film.

Alvarez says: “We came up with the idea with Ridley when we realised that the only actor who had never made a second appearance as an android was Ian Holm, who we both believe is the best in the franchise.”

“We thought it’s so unfair that he never came back when Michael Fassbender did it a couple of times and Lance Henriksen did it more than a couple of times. So we thought he deserved that.”

Director Fede Alvarez used the likeness of Ian Holm with the permission of his family. Photo: 20th Century Studios

As soon as they had the idea, Alvarez contacted Holm’s surviving loved ones. “The first thing I did was to call and chat with his widow and make sure that she could make sure the kids and all his close family was OK with the idea.”

While they used the latest technology to digitally recreate Holm’s likeness, they did not use archival recordings of his voice nor AI to capture the performance, instead hiring an actor to voice Ash through an animatronic puppet.

“We hired an actor named Daniel Betts, a British actor, who’s amazing. He lent his voice to this performance and we used the animatronic and some CG to bring him to life,” says Alvarez. “I think it was done with a lot of respect to the memory of Ian Holm, and we worked with his family to ensure that.”

Alvarez does not view this as a way of replacing new actors, however. In his mind, it’s a way of embracing history and CG technology is just a new form of prosthetic.

“I don’t think it’s much different to when Gary Oldman puts on some make-up and pretends to be Churchill. It’s a likeness that you embrace.

“It would be way cheaper to just hire one actor, honestly. To do it this way, you have to hire like 70 people and use a lot of resources to make it work. So I thought it made sense for us.”

Androids are a key part of the Alien franchise. While Holm’s Ash remains a staunch baddy in the film, these are far from one-dimensional characters, often with a complex morality that is coloured by their programmed loyalty to the malevolent Weyland-Yutani corporation.

Alvarez originally pitched his idea for an Alien sequel to Scott years ago, and it was in fact, his use of androids, called synthetics in the series, that intrigued Scott.

The film’s central relationship is between a human and an android who were raised as brother and sister, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson respectively.

“I remember the thing that hooked Ridley most was the relationship between Andy and Rain – the idea of having surrogate siblings where one is human and one is an android.

Cailee Spaeny, left, and David Jonsson play a human and android who were raised as brother and sister in Alien: Romulus. Photo: 20th Century Studios

“This story talks a lot about our love-hate relationship with AI, where a lot of a lot of us hate it but we spend a lot of times on our phones and using technology all the time. We pick and choose what we want the technology for and what we don’t. I think that’s something that Ridley has been fascinated with since Blade Runner,” says Alvarez, referring to Scott’s 1982 classic science-fiction film.

Alvarez was not just exploring the evolving relationship with technology on a textual level, however. While reviving Holm and complementing him with the endearing Andy was one way to explore this, it was also his insistence on using practical sets and puppets with as little CGI as possible.

In his mind, this has always been a key tenant of the Alien franchise, and part of the reason each film stands out so distinctly. David Fincher, for example, likely didn’t realise he was making such a nihilistic film as he did with Alien 3, Alvarez says, because it’s a product of its time.

According to Alvarez, the Alien franchise has always been a response to its time, and this film is no different. Photo: 20th Century Studios

“It was the beginning of the '90s. I remember very well how we went from this Reagan-era glam rock and colour to bleak and Nirvana and grunge, and everything that was colourful was seen as wrong and we were all burning our Guns N’ Roses CDs. We wanted bleak, dark, crude and real and the '80s needed a pop vibe. And Alien: Resurrection’s comic book sensibility made sense for the late-'90s in turn,” Alvarez explains.

“I’m reacting to an era when blockbusters are around 80 per cent animation – everything’s CG, and they’re more animated movies than actual films.

“I want to go back and do it in a way that movies were done before – I want a world that you can believe. I’m trying to fool you into believing this is a real world – to believe this is a window to another dimension where things are actually happening, those people are actually there, and that thing is really alive.

“When filmmakers really care, they are rebelling against the norms of what people are doing at the time.”

Alien: Romulus is in cinemas now