Happy Alien Day From Fede Álvarez On The Set Of ALIEN

We’ve been HUGELY excited for Fede Álvarez‘s upcoming entry into the Alien franchise, and are even more so now that we’ve been blessed with a little on-set teaser from the Evil Dead director himself.

Álvarez’s tweet (as seen below) reveals that filming is taking place today, on not just any old Wednesday, but Alien Day. If you’re not familiar, today’s date (4/26) plays with the title of the moon where xenomorphs are discovered, named in the 1986 classic Aliens as LV-426.

The sneak peek doesn’t reveal too much on-set action, but we do get a look at a spaceship interior and one of the iconic Facehuggers clutching creepily onto a clapperboard. It’s a fitting tease, as we haven’t known a whole lot about the new franchise entry since learning about it over a year ago. We do know that it’s an “an original standalone feature” (so not a sequel to Prometheus and Covenant), and that Cailee Spaeny, Isabel Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu will star. We also know some plot beats thanks to The Hollywood Reporter:

Plot details are being kept in a cryochamber, but as opposed to the other movies which focused on adults in corporate, militaristic and scientific roles, this now-ninth installment of the franchise will focus on a group of young people. On a distant colony, the group finds themselves in a fight for their lives with the titular alien, a creature known as a Xenomorph, whose race propagates by implanting eggs into people’s stomachs via face-huggers, with the juveniles eventually violently bursting out of the host’s chest

Alvarez wrote the screenplay with his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2). Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien, is on board as a producer alongside Michael Pruss, with Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), Elizabeth Cantillon (Persuasion) and Tom Moran (The Donut King) serving as executive producers.

Don’t forget that we’ve also got an upcoming Alien TV series coming from FX, Aliens: Dark Descent coming for gamers in June and, hell, another treat for today in the form of Aliens: Fireteam Elite. All in all, t’s a very good time to be a Xenomorph fan. Keep checking for updates on Álvarez’s Alien as they roll in!