Spoilers ahead for The Last Of Us Part II and Alien: Romulus.
Horror director Fede Álvarez has shared a unique connection between his latest filmmaking venture, Alien: Romulus, and The Last Of Us Part II. In a post shared to X (formerly Twitter), Álvarez outlined the link shared between Kay, a character from Alien: Romulus, played by Isabela Merced, and a storyline from the Naughty Dog sequel.
For those in the loop on the latest developments with the second season of HBO’s The Last Of Us, Merced was recently cast as Dina, featuring as a series regular alongside Bella Ramsey.
Switching back to Alien: Romulus, Merced was cast as Kay, a pregnant crew member aboard the Corbelan, joining a team on a scavenging mission for cryostasis chambers. Throughout the writing process for Romulus, Álvarez, 46, played The Last Of Us Part II and found inspiration in Dina’s pregnancy subplot. “The story of a pregnant Dina made me think of having the character of Kay be pregnant too. Then I cast Isabela Merced to play Kay.”
Fun fact: I was playing #TheLastOfUs2 while writing #AlienRomulus The story of a pregnant Dina made me think of having the character of Kay be pregnant too. Then I cast Isabella Merced to play Kay…. A year later she gets cast to play Dina on the HBO show…. True story. https://t.co/fABV9L1x1I pic.twitter.com/prDV6bHTYf
— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) August 24, 2024
Before taking a crack at the latest instalment in the Alien franchise, Álvarez is best known for his work on the brilliantly reimagined Evil Dead (2013), and the stealthily suspenseful Don’t Breathe (2016), collaborating on both films with Jane Levy.
Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny, David Johnson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and features a digitally altered appearance based on the likeness of Ian Holm, who famously played Ash in Alien (1979), named in this film as Rook.
Earlier in the month, HBO released their first teaser for The Last Of Us Season 2, giving fans the first glimpse at Kaitlyn Dever in the role as Abby, and an unnamed character played by Catherine O’Hara, best known for Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek.
For more horror content at FlickLuster, read our review for A Quiet Place: Day One here.
