Romulus Concept Art Reveals Unseen Stage Of The Offspring Life Cycle

This article contains major spoilers for “Alien: Romulus.”

“Alien: Romulus” takes the “Force Awakens” approach to the legacy sequel formula, serving up a collection of greatest hits moments from across the entire “Alien” franchise (like most fans, this movie chooses to ignore “Alien vs. Predator” and its sequel), resulting in Easter eggs and references aplenty. It’s an approach that won’t work for everyone, but there are still plenty of great moments that make this movie special.

That’s especially the case when it comes to the final set piece in “Alien: Romulus,” wherein the pregnant Kay (Isabela Merced) injects herself with a black goo in order to heal a serious injury. In a new spin on the original film’s alien terror sneaking into a spaceship idea, Kay gives birth to a monstrosity that rapidly mutates and matures into a giant Xenomorph with the face of an Engineer — The Offspring. The horror of sex and childbirth has been a theme in the “Alien” property since the very beginning, but The Offspring feels (and looks) like the culmination of the idea of hybridizing humans, Xenomorphs, and Engineers from “Prometheus,” bringing the concept full circle with terrifying results.  

Unsurprisingly, getting there was a process, and much like the Xenomorph went through many designs, so too did The Offspring go through some adjustments in pre-production. We previously saw an early unused design for the Offspring that included long black hair; now, concept artist Dane Hallett has shared other designs that didn’t quite make the cut, but which nevertheless spark the imagination for an alternate messed up “Alien” film that never was.

That’s right, we almost got a version of “Alien: Romulus” that ended with a battle featuring a Xenomorph mutant WITH WINGS. Sure, the teenage Offspring is upsetting and unsettling, but it looks more like a creature out of “I Am Legend” than a Xenomorph. The Xenomorph with wings, on the other hand, is bizarre, pretty darkly funny, and absolutely metal.

The Offspring, as played by Robert Bobroczkyi, makes for a terrifyingly absurd and bizarre way to end “Alien: Romulus.” It’s also a creature that marries the best part of “Alien: Resurrection” (that is, the concept of a Xenomorph that has feelings for its mother, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley clone, and who acts like a baby or a puppy) with the best parts of Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” (which included mutations of humans, Xenomorphs, and Engineers alike). But while it’s unlikely The Offspring will return in this particular form again, its introduction, coupled with everything else in the ending of “Romulus,” makes for an effective way to essentially restart the “Alien” franchise.

At the very least, The Offspring is certainly much better executed than, say, the Xenomorph and Predator hybrid (aka the Predalien) from the “Alien vs. Predator” films. It not only fits thematically with the ideas of playing god and creation previously explored in “Prometheus,” but it also fits the vision of childbirth as horror in “Romulus” while making for an effective and original creature unlike anything we’d seen from this franchise before. Still, maybe next time, could we add some wings to the mix?

“Alien: Romulus” is currently playing in theaters.