Summary

• Facehuggers in Alien: Romulus have been upgraded to hunt in packs, adding a new level of terror to the franchise.
• The classic xenormorph creatures are more sinister than ever with new changes to their behavior in this installment.
• Alien fans will be on the edge of their seats as they witness facehuggers in hordes for the first time, intensifying the fear factor.

The teaser trailer for Alien: Romulus confirms a terrifying update to the classic facehugger creatures seen throughout the Alien franchise. Facehuggers have always formed an important part of the xenormorph's lifecycle and surrounding lore. Now, however, the spider-like monsters have been made even more sinister with some important new changes identified in the movie's first promotional trailer.

The facehuggers are one of Alien's most enigmatic creatures. Playing a part in the early stage of the animal's lifecycle, they are responsible for impregnating the host, typically ambushing them from an alien egg as seen during Kane's investigation of the ship in the original Alien. This parasitic quality already makes facehuggers terrifying. However, with several key details in the trailer, Alien: Romulus is changing their behavior to make them even more scary.

Alien: Romulus Confirms There Are Facehugger Hordes In The Franchise

Thanks to the alien's lifecycle, facehuggers typically emerge from an egg one at a time, depending on whether a suitable host is close enough. This is a clever evolutionary design since only one chestburster embryo can be implanted at a time. For the first time, however, Alien: Romulus is showing how facehuggers can hunt their prey not just individually, but in a pack, if the circumstances are right.

The trailer shows a terrifying moment where multiple facehuggers burst through a glass door, scuttling after a potential victim. Previously, the franchise has explored the concept of facehuggers actively stalking people – most notably in Aliens' exhilarating med-bay scene. This change, however, marks the first time they have been seen on such a scale – ramping up the terror and turning them into an even more formidable prospect.

How Alien: Romulus Is Updating Xenomorph Lore

The facehugger's new behavior is an interesting change to established Alien lore. While it's theoretically always been possible for facehuggers to hunt en-masse, the franchise has only ever shown the creatures choosing victims that had little chance of escape. The major exception is in Aliens, where Ripley and Newt have to fend off two facehuggers released by Burke, but these had already been captured for study by the Hadley's Hope colonists – typically, facehuggers don't emerge from their eggs unless they can immediately attach to a host.

All this suggests that facehuggers will play a more active role in Alien: Romulus. The fact that so many have clearly emerged also suggests that there will be many potential human hosts in the story, and therefore multiple aliens – a seriously scary prospect for the ship's crew. There is also an intriguing shot of a facehugger being removed from a victim, something that hasn't been actively seen in the franchise before, and which raises new questions about the alien's lifecycle. All of this suggests that Alien: Romulus will be not just terrifying, but a potential gamechanger for the entire Alien franchise.