Cailee Spaeny as Rain, Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, Alien Xenomorph

Many fans are wondering when exactly Alien: Romulus takes place in the Alien timeline.

Alien: Romulus expands the franchise by diving deep into an unexplored place in the vast timeline of Alien movies.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, the horror movie’s plot follows six space colonizers as they try to steal highly regulated equipment, but they encounter a horde of Xenomorphs instead.

[ Alien Romulus: Biggest Spoilers from Plot & Ending Explained ]

When Does Alien: Romulus Take Place? Alien Timeline Explained

Cailee Spaeny as Rain against a Xenomorph in Alien: RomulusCailee Spaeny & Xenomorph
Alien: Romulus is set between 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens, taking place in 2142.

More specifically, this means that the events of the Cailee Spaeny-led flick happened 20 years after Alien and 37 years before the sequel.

During this time, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is still in stasis somewhere in deep space as well as the original Xenomorph whom she kicked out of the air duct.

Alien: Romulus’ place in the timeline makes it a completely standalone entry since 20 years is a lot of wiggle room to expand more stories that don’t interfere with the Ripley-led narratives of the franchise.
Cailee Spaeny as Rain & Archie Renaux as Tyler in Alien: RomulusCailee Spaeny & Archie Renaux
The 37 years between Alien: Romulus and Aliens are a long time for exploring more of the lore within the Alien franchise.

In fact, avoiding spoilers, Alien: Romulus‘ ending already took a big swing by introducing a new concept that intrigued fans, and a potential sequel could further do a deep dive into it.

Here is a quick overview of the Alien movies and the respective years they took place:

Prometheus – 2093
Alien: Covenant – 2104
Alien – 2122
Alien: Romulus – 2142
Aliens – 2179
Alien 3 – 2180
Alien: Resurrection – 2379

Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are prequels that explore the origins of humanity, introducing the concept of Engineers as the creators of mankind, and how a synthetic named David created early versions of alien species before ultimately ending up with the Xenomorphs.

The timeline above doesn’t include the two Alien vs Predator movies (Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem) since they are considered non-canon because the events in those films contradict what was established in the rest of the franchise.

Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters worldwide.