The upcoming sequel Alien: Romulus could turn two fresh characters in the series into the true successors for the franchise’s most iconic characters. Alien: Romulus was a fun expansion of the Alien series, expanding on the events in the time gap between Alien and Aliens. The film introduced an entirely new cast of characters, many of whom don’t survive.

However, the sequel to Alien: Romulus will reportedly focus on the film’s two survivors: Rainn and Andy. What makes this so exciting is the way both characters feel like responses and evolutions of two of the Alien franchise’s best characters. By keeping the focus on them, the series might have found the perfect heirs to those classic characters.

Rainn Is An Evolution Of The Archetype Ripley Perfected In Aliens

Rainn is set up as a replacement for Ripley in the Alien franchise, which could allow her arc to go places that Ripley never got to explore. Rainn was a compelling addition to the franchise, a young woman who has always been part of the Weyland-Yutani system as a worker, who wants something better for herself and her brother, Andy.

Rainn feels like a compelling refinement of the original Ripley, herself a company woman simply working on the Nostromo in Alien until she encountered a Xenomorph. Both characters were low-level employees stuck in a broken system, afterthoughts to a company that was far more focused on recovering the alien rather than ensuring the safety of their employees.

Rainn takes that a step further by being an orphan, whose “job” with the company is treated as indentured servitude and a prolonged death sentence. She takes the themes set up in Ripley’s arc about the cruelty of the company and takes them further by being a teenager instead of a grown woman, making her rebellion feel more overtly defiant.

Rainn venturing off with Andy into space even sets up Rainn to go through the kind of arc Ripley went through in Alien 3 by exploring a new setting and planet, albeit hopefully with better results than what happened in that film. Rainn could continue to fight against Weyland-Yutani expansions and discoveries, now with a real sense of purpose.

The biggest difference between Rainn and Ripley is that the latter has a subtextual arc focused on her status as a mother, which is explored in Aliens with Newt and then with an alien embryo in Alien 3. However, Rainn takes on a comparable arc as Andy’s brother, while adding in questions about his status as a synth.

Rainn basically goes through Ripley’s initial arc from Alien and Aliens across the course of Alien: Romulus, proving herself a durable and skilled survivor in the face of the Xenomorph threat. By bringing Rainn back at the center of the next film in the series, the Alien series is laying the groundwork for Rainn to truly become the next Ripley.

Andy Could Become More Complex Than David In Prometheus

Andy is the latest Synthetic character in the Alien franchise, and is arguably the most morally complex. Typically a well-meaning and withdrawn brother figure for Rainn, his upgrade courtesy of a Weyland-Yutani tech transforms him into a brilliant, scheming company man who will sacrifice family and friends for the prime directive.

This dicH๏τomy between a gentler persona and the harsher personality of Andy makes for a very compelling character, effectively fusing the two Michael Fᴀssbender Synthetic characters from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant into a compelling new whole. David was one of the most compelling aspects of Prometheus, a thought-provoking take on philosophy.

His variant in the Covenant, Walter, was a more sympathetic character. This presented a good groundwork for how to explore a more personable and human sympathetic character, especially in contrast to the harsher elements of Weyland-Yutani. Andy is a natural successor to that thematic arc, combining both characters into a singular conflicted figure.

Andy could become like David when he’s upgraded into a ruthless state, with a cold appraisal of humanity that could easily allow Alien: Romulus‘ sequel to delve into a dispᴀssionate view of humanity in the face of progress and advancement. He also retains enough humanity because of his true self to add a complex layer to the archetype David personified.

That soulful element to Andy and the subsequent questions about the robot’s humanity present a lot of storytelling potential for Alien films. It’s exactly the kind of material that Alien: Earth has been deftly exploring in the TV realm, and could present an interesting place to thematically connect the TV and film corners of the world.

Andy can really synthesize those two elements, bridging the gap and presenting a potentially devious but sympathetic character that reinvents how the synths work. The sequel to Alien: Romulus could be the perfect way to amplify Andy and Rainn in the face of the franchise, especially if the sequel really does evolve them in contrast to Ripley and David.