Alien: Romulus’ Xenomorph reveal changes the ending of Aliens in a big way

Alien: Romulus opens with a shocking connection to the Xenomorph from 1979’s Alien – but it may change one of Ellen Ripley’s most iconic moments.

At the end of the original movie, Ripley blasts “Big Chap” (the affectionate nickname fans have given the first Xenomorph) out of the airlock and fires up the engines to blow it away.

However, Romulus confirms a long-held theory: these pesky extraterrestrials can survive the vacuum of space. In its opening scene, a Weyland-Yutani crew picks up a mysterious object – and it’s revealed to be a hibernating Xeno, the same one from the first film.

Big Chap only appears once more: Rook (brought to life with some “digital necromancy” with Ian Holm) points to its corpse hanging from the ceiling, evidently killed by the ship’s former crew.

As one fan on Reddit has pointed out, if Xenomorphs can withstand the sub-zero, inhospitable conditions of space… what happened to the Queen from Aliens?

“Seems like the Queen would have no problem doing the same. Not sure if I love the idea of BOTH of Ripley’s classic final kills being retroactively neutered,” they wrote.

There’s the possibility she was sucked into the planet’s atmosphere, given the Sulaco (the getaway dropship they use to flee) was orbiting LV-426 when Ripley forces the Queen out of the airlock.

“Xenomorphs are tough but not raw dog it through atmosphere reentry and slam into the surface at terminal velocity tough,” one fan joked, while another wrote: “They were too close to the planet for her not to be caught up in its gravity eventually, and she wasn’t moving at escape velocity.”

However… what if it lived? “Could easily see a setup where this Queen was picked up as salvage and decimated the crew. Even better if the ship crashed on a planet, survived, and created an absolutely massive colony,” one user speculated.

“You can make a bet that at some point down the road, some filmmaker will bring back the Queen from Hadley’s Hope in a new Alien film,” another predicted. “I think it 100% fits the terror of the Xenomorph. You don’t win against them, you don’t kill them all, you just escape to survive and hope you never encounter them again,” a third wrote.

If you’ve watched the new movie, check out our breakdown of Alien: Romulus’ ending, when Romulus takes place in the Alien timeline, and our ranking of the Alien movies.