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James Cameron may have offered advice on Alien: Romulus, but he won’t take the blame if it “sucks”.
The recently released film is the seventh entry in the sci-fi franchise, which began in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s Alien, and was followed up by Cameron’s 1986 sequel, Aliens, also starring Sigourney Weaver.
Both films have gone down in history as some of the best alien flicks ever to be released, and so it makes sense that Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez reached out to Cameron for some advice before starting work on his instalment.
Cameron, 70, however, was quick to downplay his influence on the film in a new interview with The Guardian.
“I wasn’t really helping out,” he insists. “I know Fede, the director, and very early on he and his writing partner came to me and said, ‘Got any ideas?’ – no, they had plenty of ideas but they just wanted to kind of, I don’t know, pilgrimage to Mecca or something like that.”
He continued: “But that was years ago, then they went off and wrote their thing and I had nothing to do with it.”
Cameron was once again called on for his expertise, however, when Àlvarez had finished an early cut of the film six months later.
“I gave him some notes for like an hour,” said the Titanic director. “I don’t want to take any credit whatsoever. If the film is great, I don’t want to take any credit; if it sucks, not my fault! Seriously, it’s his thing, so credit due where it’s due and, from what I’m hearing, it’s pretty good.”
The film is receiving mostly positive reviews from fans and critics, with some people praising it as the best entry into the franchise since Cameron’s much-loved sequel.
Viewers around the world are in awe of one actor’s performance in particular, with many singling him out as the highlight of the film.
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Led by Civil War star Cailee Spaeny, Romulus follows a small crew who come face-to-face with a terrifying life-form called Zenomorphs while scavenging a derelict space station.
Asked whether he would consider rejoining the Alien franchise, Cameron did not sound hopeful.
“It’s kind of trampled ground at this point,” he said. “I wouldn’t rule anything out but I’ve got 23 other projects in the queue before that hypothetical one so I’m going to guess, with me turning 70, that ain’t gonna happen. You’ve got to pick your battles at some point. You know what I mean?”
Elsewhere during the interview, Cameron spoke about Avatar: Fire and Ash, which follows on from 2022’s Avatar: Way of Water, the much-delayed sequel to the 2009 original.
Cameron kept the project very much under wraps, but said: “I know what we’ve got with this film and it’s gonna be a trip. What I would tell people is it’s not going to be what you expect but it’s going to be what you want.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash is set for release on 19 December 2025; Alien; Romulus is in cinemas now.
