Romulus You May Have Missed

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus!

The Offspring is a terrifying new creature that is introduced in 2024’s Alien: Romulus, and here are eight key details about the alien’s design that you may have missed. For most of the film’s runtime, Alien: Romulus is concerned with making the Xenomorphs its main antagonist, with Rain, Andy, and the rest of the Alien: Romulus cast facing off against them while on board the Romulus space station. However, the final act of Alien: Romulus introduces an all-new creature known as The Offspring, and the brief appearance of the monster features all kinds of connections to the wider Alien franchise.

Throughout Alien: Romulus, it is mentioned that Kay is pregnant, a detail about the Alien: Romulus character that doesn’t come back into play until the end of the film. Alien: Romulus brings back the black goo from Prometheus, with this being behind The Offspring’s creation. After being mortally wounded, Kay decides to use the black goo to save herself. This leads to her baby evolving within her, with Kay giving birth to a disgusting cocoon that contains The Offspring. The Offspring has a terrifying design, with the Alien: Romulus monster featuring these eight design details.

8 The Offspring’s Height

It Is Over 7 Feel Tall

One of the most apparent things about The Offspring in Alien: Romulus is its height. Despite starting out as a baby, it quickly evolves into a much taller version of itself, with it towering over Rain throughout their final battle. In the film, The Offspring is 7 feet and 7 inches tall, showing that the monster is far taller than the average human. This makes the creature all the more threatening, with it being much bigger than Xenomorphs, the Engineers, and other foes that have been met throughout the Alien franchise.

Much of The Offspring’s height is thanks to the actor who played it in Alien: Romulus. Basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi is inside The Offspring’s costume, with the athlete being 7’7″ in real life. Bobroczkyi was chosen for the role due to his towering stature, allowing for a much more realistic creature of that height to be made. Not much had to be added to The Offspring in order for the monster to reach this height and scale, with Robert Bobroczkyi having roughly the same proportions as the final boss in Alien: Romulus.

7 The Offspring’s Tail

It Is Just Like The Xenomorphs’

Another notable aspect of The Offspring’s design in Alien: Romulus is the creature’s tail. Despite The Offspring having some human attributes that are visible in its design, the tail is far removed from what Kay’s baby would have otherwise looked like, with this addition being purely a product of the black goo’s evolution. The Offspring’s massive tail hangs down from its pelvis all the way to the ground, making it quite long when considering the alien’s height. It then curls back up into the air, with the appendage seeming prehensile.

The Offspring’s tail looks almost exactly like the tails that are seen on the Xenomorphs throughout the Alien franchise, with the biggest departure in its design being the color. Much like the Xenomorph, the Offspring’s tail seems bony, with it being made up of tons of different segments rather than being completely smooth. On top of that, The Offspring’s tail ends in a massive spike. This allows it to use its tail as a weapon, with it having the ability to stab prey in the same way that the Xenomorph can.

6 The Offspring’s Evolving Face

It Changes Throughout Alien: Romulus’ Ending

Throughout The Offspring’s appearance in Alien: Romulus, its face evolves multiple times, with this being one of the scariest aspects of the monster. When The Offspring is first seen, it is coming out of its cocoon, with the acidic blood causing it to melt through the floor. Before it falls, the audience can briefly see The Offspring’s face, with it looking like a relatively normal baby face.

When Rain sees The Offspring again, it is a completely different story. While The Offspring’s face does look more human than Xenomorph, its odd proportions and stretched-out facial features make it look a bit uncanny. The monster’s black eyes and sharp teeth make it look threatening, although it looks a bit pitiful when it does some facial expressions. As the fight goes on, however, The Offspring’s face becomes more and more monstrous, with it splitting open and becoming increasingly scary.

The Offspring in Alien: Romulus is actually incredibly similar to The Newborn from Alien: Resurrection. Much like The Offspring, The Newborn is a hybrid of human and Xenomorph, with it having human eyes and other facial features mixed in with a Xenomorph head.

5 The Offpsring’s Claws

One Of The Monster’s Biggest Weapons

Another weapon that is at The Offspring’s disposal is its claws, another aspect that makes the monster incredibly dangerous. The Offspring’s lanky arms end in massive hands that, while they look human, are far larger than the hands of Rain or Kay. At the end of each of the long fingers is a sharp claw, with The Offspring using them to slash at Rain throughout their battle.

These claws are also reminiscent of the claws that can be seen on the hands of the Xenomorphs, with this being another way in which the Xenomorph’s DNA has influenced the DNA of Kay’s baby. This most likely means that these claws are one of the natural evolutionary endpoints that the black goo from Prometheus often reaches, as it has been seen on several of the aliens from the franchise.

4 The Offspring’s Back Holes

Their Purpose Is Never Explained

One of the oddest parts of The Offspring’s design is its back, something that can only briefly be seen throughout its appearance in Alien: Romulus. The Offspring has four holes on its back, with them remaining open throughout its appearance and presumably being direct paths to the inside of the monster. The reason for these back holes is never explained in Alien: Romulus, with their pale skin and the fact that they are on a humanoid body making them incredibly creepy.

These back holes aren’t unique to The Offspring, however. In fact, they can also be seen on every Xenomorph. These holes were part of the original Xenomorph design, with some of the concept art showing tubes coming out of them and connecting them to walls and other goopy substances. The function of the back holes and Xenomorph tubes have never been explained in the Alien franchise, although they are the subject of much discussion. The Offspring is never seen having tubes in its back, making these holes even more mysterious.

3 The Offspring’s Damage

How Does Rain Kill The Alien?

As Rain fights The Offspring throughout Alien: Romulus, the creature becomes increasingly more damaged, with this continuing until its death as they are abandoning the Romulus space station. As it fights Rain, black goo begins to emerge from The Offspring’s mouth. This seems like it is meant to be blood, although it doesn’t appear to be acidic, something that is one of the defining traits of Alien‘s Xenomorph.

On top of that, The Offspring gets various wounds across its body, making the monster appear even creepier. Despite its stature, it seems to be more easily damaged than the Xenomorph, with this either being a product of The Offspring’s youth or its human DNA. Luckily, The Offspring is finally killed by Rain when it falls into the cargo bay of the ship. Rain then ejects the Cargo Pod, with The Offspring falling into the same planetary rings that destroy the Romulus space station.

2 The Offspring’s Baby Form

It Is Born In A Cocoon

Although The Offspring is mostly seen in its larger form in the final act of Alien: Romulus, this isn’t the only form that the creature takes in the film. In fact, the audience briefly gets to see The Offspring as a baby, with it then disappearing before reemerging in its full monster form. As it is being born, The Offspring severely damages Kay. Instead of being born as a baby, Kay gives birth to a cocoon, one that looks like the pods that the Xenomorphs emerge out of throughout Alien: Romulus.

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Prometheus’ Black Goo Explained: All Powers And How It Connects To Alien

The black goo introduced in Prometheus is quietly one of the most important aspects of the prequel, and plays into the origins of Alien’s Xenomorphs.

Upon being born, the cocoon opens up, spilling out a strange liquid. This liquid turns out to be acidic, much like the blood of the Xenomorph. The acid burns through the ground of the ship, allowing the cocoon to fall into the cargo bay. When it opens, the audience is offered a brief glimpse at the baby Offspring. The Offspring’s baby form looks fairly human, with the black goo presumably taking a major toll on it during the period in which the monster is offscreen.

1 The Offspring’s Engineer Connections

They Could Be Due To The Black Goo’s Influence

While The Offspring are clearly meant to be a mix of humans and Xenomorphs, they also share a lot of attributes with another species: the Engineers. The Engineers are a species of aliens that were first introduced in Prometheus, with the Engineers being the ones who first made the black goo. Although they weren’t evolved by the black goo, with David even killing many Engineers with it in Alien: Covenant, some did attempt to use it, potentially creating a connection between the Engineers and the black goo’s evolutionary patterns.

The Offspring has the same pale-colored skin as the Engineers, with that being the first connection. The Offspring also has a bald head and hairless body, another attribute that is shared with the Engineers. Most notably, however, the Offspring and the Engineers both have large black eyes, suggesting a connection between the Prometheus characters and the final alien in Alien: Romulus.

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.

Director

Fede Alvarez

Release Date

August 16, 2024

Studio(s)

Scott Free Productions , 20th Century

Distributor(s)

20th Century

Writers

Fede Alvarez , Rodo Sayagues , Dan O’Bannon , Ronald Shusett

Cast

Cailee Spaeny , David Jonsson , Archie Renaux , Isabela Merced , Spike Fearn , Aileen Wu , Rosie Ede , Soma Simon , Bence Okeke , Viktor Orizu , Robert Bobroczkyi , Trevor Newlin , Annemarie Griggs , Daniel Betts

Character(s)

Rain , Andy , Tyler , Kay , Bjorn , Navarro , WY Officer , 10-Year-Old Punk #1 , 10-Year-Old Punk #2 , 10-Year-Old Punk #3 , Offspring , Xenomorph , MU/TH/UR (voice) , Rook (Facial and Vocal Performance)

Runtime

119 Minutes

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