Alien: Romulushas shaken up the typical franchise formula with a younger cast than usual, but exactly how old is Cailee Spaeny’s character Rain supposed to be in the movie? Whereas theAlienfilms usually revolve around space truckers or space marines (or just straight-up astronauts exploring the cosmos),Alien: Romulusrevolves around a bunch of orphaned kids working dead-end jobs at a mining colony. In a bid to escape to a brighter future on a sunnier planet, they fly to the Renaissance research station to collect the cryosleep pods they need for their journey.
Spaeny leads the cast as Rain Carradine, the movie’s stand-in for original franchise star Ellen Ripley, opposite David Jonsson as her reprogrammed android brother, Andy.TheAlien: Romuluscastis rounded out by rising stars Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu.These characters are younger than the averageAlienmovie protagonists, but the age difference isn’t quite as significant as it seems. Rain is closer to Ripley’s age in the original film thanAlien: Romulusmakes her look.
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Cailee Spaeny’s Rain Is In Her 20s In Alien: Romulus
Spaeny was 25 during filming
Rain was said to be 25 years old inAlien: Romulusbefore the movie was released, but it turns out that a subtle detail confirms she’s younger. It’s established that she’s been working at a mining colony, chipping away at her corporate-mandated quota, for years. However, her profile in the computer system shows that she was born in 2121,meaning Rain’s 21 inAlien: Romulus' 2142 timeline.
Rain lost her parents a long time ago, and she dreams of leaving Jackson’s Star behind and jetting off to a less bleak existence. Rain is old enough that, although Andy was reprogrammed to take care of her, now she has to take care of him. Spaeny was also 25 when she shot the movie in 2023, so the character’s age lines up with her real age.
How Rain’s Age Compares To Ripley’s Age In 1979’s Alien
Ellen Ripley is 30 years old in the original Alien movie
Ripley is 30 years old in the originalAlienmovie, soshe’s only nearly a decade older than Rain inAlien: Romulus. But Ripley was one of the youngest crew members aboard the Nostromo. Almost all of her crewmates were significantly older than her. Whereas the rest of Rain’s crew is made up of twenty-somethings around her age, there was much more age diversity inthe originalAliencast.
John Hurt was in his late 30s, Tom Skerritt was in his 40s, and Harry Dean Stanton was in his 50s. It made sense for the Nostromo crew to be different ages, because they’re essentially intergalactic truckers thrown together as a dysfunctional workforce. But it’s hinted that the Corbelan crew inAlien: Romulusall grew up together under the same miserable circumstances, so they all had to be in the same age range.
Alien: Romulus
Cast
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
