New Alien Movie From Don't Breathe's Fede Alvarez Will Star Cailee Spaeny

In space, no one can hear you scream ... but the newest installment in the classic horror franchise has just added its next would-be victim, anyway.

We've known that the next "Alien" movie would take a pretty major pivot away from Ridley Scott's (tragically still-incomplete) prequel series, which started with "Prometheus" and continued with "Alien: Covenant," revolving around Michael Fassbender's android with a god complex, David. Directed by Fede Alvarez, the filmmaker behind the 2013 "Evil Dead" remake and 2016's Stephen Lang-starring "Don't Breathe," this new untitled "Alien" film will instead take a different path entirely with new characters and a new release platform, too — straight to streaming on Hulu.

Today, however, we now know who's been approached to portray the lead of this still-untitled franchise continuation. According to Deadline, actor Cailee Spaeny is currently "in talks" to star in the next "Alien" movie. The young actor has previously been seen in movies like "Pacific Rim Uprising," "Bad Times at the El Royale," "On the Basis of Sex," and "Vice," having most recently appeared in the HBO series "Mare of Easttown" and the Showtime Original "The First Lady." She's next slated to appear in the secretive Alex Garland film "Civil War" and as Priscilla Beaulieu Presley in Sofia Coppola's Elvis-adjacent biopic about the singer's wife in "Priscilla."

The report describes Spaeny as having been the top choice for the role "for some time," impressing during multiple meetings with Alvarez and other producers. 

It appears that one of cinema's greatest-ever villains, the dreaded Xenomorphs, have found their next unfortunate human to terrorize. After the heights of Ridley Scott's original "Alien" and James Cameron's acclaimed follow-up "Aliens" and the lows of the subsequent sequels, the woefully misguided "Alien" and "Predator" crossovers, and arguably Scott's own prequel movies (though you'll find plenty of fierce defenders of both "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant"), it appears that we're in for a bit of a reset.

After years of rumors involving Neil Blomkamp, it would appear that 20th Century Studios has found its new creative leads in Noah Hawley's television series and Fede Alvarez's new movie. Frustratingly, the Deadline report indicates that plot details are still being kept under tight wraps. On the bright side, the feature film is apparently considered a "top priority" by the higher-ups following Alvarez's original pitch and the delivery of the latest draft of the script. Should all go according to plan, production on the movie is expected to begin by early next year.

Obviously, the addition of a lead as young as Cailee Spaeny tells us at least a little about the direction this new story will take, though the rest of the cast is yet to be filled out. Stay tuned to /Film for more updates as they come in.