Alien: Romulus made several new additions to the Alien franchise’s lore, but Fede Álvarez’s movie also represented a thematic and narrative return to the very first movie in the series. While the film’s design and story clearly harkened back to Ridley Scott’s 1979 original, one of Romulus‘ biggest surprises involved recreating key Alien cast member, Ian Holm, for a central role in the 2024 sequel. Given Holm’s pᴀssing in 2020, his appearance was simultaneously unexpected and an impressive technical feat.
While Holm’s likeness was not used to bring his original character, Ash, back, his performance helped fulfill a similar criteria in the story. As science officer Rook, Holm was both an eerie reminder of the untrustworthy nature of Alien synthetics and a direct callback to one of the franchise’s most iconic villains. His presence undoubtedly helped Alien: Romulus evoke the sense of nostalgia that Álvarez was obviously striving for. However, because of Holm’s legendary status and death four years before Romulus‘ release, his presence in the film is unsurprisingly controversial.
Why Fede Álvarez Used Ian Holm As Rook For Alien: Romulus
Holm’s Resurrection Is A Nod To The Actor’s Original Alien Performance
Ian Holm’s role of Ash had a major plot twist in the Ridley Scott-directed original, when it was revealed he was actually a robot with his own sinister motivations on the ship. In an ode to his iconic performance, Álvarez attempted to “resurrect” Ian Holm in Alien: Romulus with the role of a synthetic character named Rook. Using modern technology, his crew was able to take the likeness of the actor, namely his looks and voice, to create Rook. This was no easy feat, but it was a decision rooted in Álvarez’s true appreciation for the Alien films.
According to the Crafting Alien: Romulus featurette, Álvarez thought Holm would be the perfect cast member to bring back from the franchise. However, he needed a real green light to get his idea off the ground. The director’s solution was to get permission from Holm’s family, including his widow, Sophie de Stempel, and children. “Thank God they loved the idea,” Álvarez said, adding, “And Ridley loved the idea, who was really close to Ian and everybody signed off on this adventure of trying to bring him back.” Without this explicit permission, Holm likely wouldn’t have featured.
How Alien: Romulus Relied On Lord Of The Rings To Recreate Ian Holm
A Mold From His Time As Bilbo Baggins Helped
In the modern age of cinema, effects crews often use molds from the actors (called lifecasting) when creating these kinds of animatronic or CGI characters. A complete three-dimensional replica of an actor is taken and then manipulated for the big screen. This proved to be a difficult piece of the puzzle for the Alien: Romulus crew at first, given that Holm pᴀssed away in 2020 aged 88 – before production ever started.
The film crew went back to the drawing board, finding themselves in middle earth. According to the Crafting Alien: Romulus featurette, they were able to find a mold of Holm from his time playing Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings in 1999. With this older mold, the talented team at Legacy were able to manufacture an entirely new animatronic character. They only had a head cast to work with from LOTR, but it proved to be enough.
Ian Holm’s Animatronic In Alien: Romulus Explained
95 Percent Of The Animatronic Are Practical Effects
Practical effects can go a long way and that’s exactly what Legacy mainly used to bring Holm back to life. “It took a lot of R&D,” said Eric Barba, visual effects supervisor on the film. As he explained: “Finally, we landed on the plan that we can have it be at least 95 percent successful for sH๏τs, but you have to take it to the next step for extra certain sH๏τs to do, so some CGI work in the eyes and the mouth.” In simple math: 95 percent of Rook was created from practical effects, the other 5 percent were CGI.
The majority of what you see on screen of Rook in Alien: Romulus is Ian Holm in puppet form, with technology helping to fill in the rest of the gaps. Legacy’s computer learned how to turn this animatronic into Ian Holm by consuming hours of archival footage of the late actor. The end result is a very detailed and life-like Ian Holm.
Who Voiced Rook In Alien: Romulus
British Actor Daniel Betts Helped To Round Out Rook
While practical and special effects helped to re-create the look and feel of Holm, there was still one big problem the production crew had to solve – how to recreate Ian Holm’s voice. The answer was not clear-cut or exact.
Eventually, they settled on having British actor Daniel Betts help with recording all the facial capture of Rook. He would perform Rook’s lines on set with the rest of the actors and then, through the use of computer modeling and generative AI, his voice started to sound more like Holm. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the effect was surprisingly realistic.
Why Ian Holm’s Appearance In Alien: Romulus Is Controversial
It’s A Debate About Intellectual Property and Creative License
While Ian Holm’s re-appearance in an Alien film is a sweet surprise for some fans, for others, it is a blatant form of disrespect. The biggest concerns surround the fact that Holm is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and could not give permission himself to be in the film. It is a very different situation from an actor like Val Kilmer, who is alive and gave permission to find ways to recreate his voice as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick (2022) due to his battle with throat cancer.
[Álvarez] reiterates that Holm’s family gave them permission and that Betts was paid fairly for voicing Rook.
Álvarez has defended his decision to raise the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, he reiterates that Holm’s family gave them permission and that Betts was paid fairly for voicing Rook. “In the last 10 years after The Hobbit, Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him and his widow felt he would have loved to be a part of this,” Álvarez told The Times. “He loved this character in particular.” While the choice to bring Holm back to life for Alien: Romulus has been a controversial one, Álvarez said he hopes to see him again.
Other Films That Have Controversially Done Something Similar
Rogue One & Ghostbusters: Afterlife
The most controversial moment of using an actor after their death via CGI came in the Star Wars prequel series Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with Peter Cushing. This moment not only rubbed many fans the wrong way but also didn’t look good compared to what can be done in films now. Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars, died in 1994. Rogue One came out in 2016. Like Ian Holm, Cushing’s estate approved his use in Rogue One.
A more recent example was when Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought back Harold Ramis as a ghost. Ramis played Egon Spengler in the original Ghostbusters movies, and the new films follow his daughter and grandchildren. Bringing back Egon also gave all four original Ghostbusters a chance to reunite, although Ramis died in 2014. The movie had another actor work as a stand-in, and then the effects team replaced him with the ghostly figure of Egon. Fans more readily accepted this than the Peter Cushing revival.
There were also moments when movie actors who had died were replaced, and fans had very few problems with it compared to Alien: Romulus. The most tragic came when Brandon Lee died while shooting The Crow. To finish the movie, the film hired Chad Stahelski (who years later directed John Wick) to be Lee’s stand-in for the remaining sH๏τs his character had. In The Fast & the Furious franchise, they have brought back Paul Walker’s Brian by using his brothers as stand-ins while digitally imposing his face.
