Alien: Romulus‘ wild ending took a big swing by featuring one of the franchise’s scariest creatures yet: a human and Xenomorph hybrid.

Director Fede Alvarez’s (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead) newest entry to the Alien franchise took things to a whole new level with the introduction of the terrifying hybrid, saving the horror film’s best surprise in the final minutes.

From a new cast of six main characters who decided to steal highly regulated equipment aboard the abandoned Renaissance station, a surprise encounter with a plethora of facehuggers and a horde of Xenomorphs trimmed their crew into three, namely Rain (Cailee Spaeny), the android Andy (David Jonsson), and Kay (Isabela Merced).

At the center of the movie’s ending is a pregnant Kay who uncovers a horrifying revelation after escaping the space station.

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

Alien: Romulus’ Ending Explained: What Is the Human-Xenomorph Hybrid?

Isabela Merced
Alien: Romulus‘ ending mostly centers around Kay as she struggles with her pregnancy after being kidnapped and badly injured by a Xenomorph in the movie’s first half.

As Rain and Andy fight off a horde of Xenomorphs inside the space station, Kay goes back to the ship to wait for them.

In a desperate attempt to save her baby’s life, she decides to inject herself with the Prometheus formula (aka the black goo) that the science officers (led by Rook) reengineered before being killed by the original Xenomorph from the first movie.

Her wrong decision comes back to haunt her, Rain, and Andy in horrific ways after it accelerates her pregnancy and gives birth to a Xenomorph and human hybrid known as “The Offspring” (the character is played by 7’7 Romanian basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi).

This Offspring quickly matures from an egg to a fully-developed adult that resembles the Engineers in Prometheus infused with Xenomorph features such as its growing tail, dorsal spines, acid blood, and completely developed jaws.

Some have described it as an evolved Slenderman-like figure that is infused with Xenomorph traits and features.

While it retains most of its human qualities, the Offspring’s monstrous form stands out. It also showcases a bipedal nature since he can crawl and stand upright whenever the creature chooses.

Another horrifying trait is that it actively drinks off the black goo that is coming out of Kay. Basically, it’s a nightmare version of breastfeeding.

Drinking off the black goo from Kay is the final nail in her coffin as she dies after the hybrid seemingly drained her body.

So How Did Rain Defeat the Human/Xenomorph Hybrid?

Cailee Spaeny
As the Offspring kills Kay and severely injures Andy’s android body, a standoff ensues between Rain and the creature.

Rain goes full Ripley (complete with a space suit) as she uses her wit and combat skills to evade the hybrid’s attacks. She successfully sets a trap by using the creature’s own acidic blood against it.

As the blood melts through the cargo bay, the hybrid gets ejected into space and into the planetary rings, seemingly killing it.

After successfully defeating the creature, Rain even mirrors what Ripley did in the endings of Alien and Aliens as she puts herself and her brother inside a cryo-pod to go into stasis as they head off to Yvaga III.

Comparing Alien: Romulus’ New Hybrid to The Newborn from Alien: Resurrection

Alien: Resurrection
Alien: Romulus is not the first time that the franchise introduced a form of hybrid on the big screen since Alien: Resurrection did it first.

In Resurrection, the “Newborn” emerges as a twisted byproduct of the Queen’s offspring combined with human DNA from Ellen Ripley’s clone.

This creature has an elongated skull that has eyes, a nose, a mouth, and pale skin that has the strength and terrifying nature of a Xenomorph.

The two hybrids are drastically different from one another since the Newborn sees Ripley as its mother and does not want to harm her whereas the Offspring from Romulus instantly kills Kay by draining the black goo from her.

Unlike the Newborn, it seems that the Xenomorph nature inside the Offspring takes over rather than the small sense of humanity within.

The Offspring appears to be more powerful and fast enough as well to kill its prey, making it a more dangerous foe if it ends up returning.

[ Every Alien Movie To Watch Before Romulus & Everything You Need To Know ]

Will the Offspring Hybrid Return in Future Alien Movies?

At this point, it remains to be seen if the same Offspring or a new version will return in a potential sequel to Alien: Romulus, considering that its death is somewhat definitive.

Well, the first Xenomorph from Alien who “died” is brought back in Alien: Romulus so anything is possible.

Still, the circumstances surrounding the Offspring’s birth are unique since it required a pregnant host (Kay) and a newly engineered black goo from the Renaissance space station.

Repeating that one-in-a-million scenario is quite tricky. While the company can find another pregnant host, the whole research centered around the black goo in Renaissance has apparently been destroyed into smithereens at the end of the movie.

There is still hope, though, since there is a canister of black goo inside Rain’s ship that is heading to Yvaga III.

At the end of the day, the only person standing in the way of Weyland-Yutani Corporation replicating the human and Xenomorph hybrid is Rain and it’s a safe bet that she will make sure to keep that canister away from the company.

Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters worldwide.