Summary

• Cailee Spaeny's next movie, Alien: Romulus, marks a significant improvement from her first sci-fi role in Pacific Rim: Uprising.
• Since Pacific Rim: Uprising, Spaeny has been in some very successful and critically acclaimed movies, like Priscilla and Civil War.
• Alien: Romulus offers Spaeny the chance to showcase her growth as an actor through a meaty role reminiscent of Sigourney Weaver's iconic Ripley.

Cailee Spaeny's next movie, confirmed details about Alien: Romulus' story, a trailer has been released, and it already looks like a very promising movie. It also seems somewhat similar to Cailee Spaeny's first role in a feature-length film, though her next movie should be much better.

While Alien: Romulus is Spaeny's next movie, it's not the only project she's already been cast in. Along with Alien: Romulus, Spaeny is filming two new projects: Wake Up Dead Man. Those projects make Spaeny's future look very bright, but Alien: Romulus has also highlighted a mistake from early in her career. Luckily, her new sci-fi role should be much better than her first film as an actor.

Pacific Rim: Uprising Was Cailee Spaeny’s First Movie Role

Cailee Spaeny's first sci-fi movie, and her first movie role in general, came in Pacific Rim: Uprising. She played Amara Namani, a young Jaeger pilot who teamed up with John Boyega's Jake Pentecost to fight a Kaiju invasion. While it may be Spaeny's first feature film, it was far from her best. Pacific Rim: Uprising only earned 42% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and only 37% with audiences. It also had a lackluster box office performance, earning just $290 million (via Box Office Mojo) - well shy of the $375 million it needed to turn a profit. Fortunately, Pacific Rim: Uprising didn't start a downward trend for Spaeny.

Cailee Spaeny technically had an acting credit before Pacific Rim: Uprising. She played Erica in the short film Counting to 1000, but Pacific Rim: Uprising still counts as her first feature-length film.

What Cailee Spaeny Has Done Since Pacific Rim: Uprising

Though Pacific Rim: Uprising wasn't a particularly impressive start to Spaeny's acting career, it didn't slow her down at all. Since 2018, Spaeny has appeared in seven movies and three TV shows, and many of them have been hugely successful. Spaeny's career has also been on a noteworthy hot streak in the past few years, as she starred in two critically-acclaimed films: Priscilla, where she played the titular wife of Elvis Presley, and Civil War, where she played the young photojournalist Jessie. Her success wasn't just a matter of luck, though, as Spaeny has also proven she can nail a leading role.

One movie in particular perfectly highlights why Cailee Spaeny is such a popular actor: Priscilla. Spaeny was nominated for 12 awards due to her performance in Priscilla, and she even won the Venice Film Festival's award for Best Actress in 2023. Many of the reviews for Priscilla also point out that Spaeny gave a talented, nuanced performance, and that she had more than enough range to play Priscilla at different points in her life.

Alien: Romulus Is The Sci-Fi Movie Role Cailee Spaeny Deserves

Through the course of her career, Spaeny has more than proven she's worthy of much better movies than Pacific Rim: Uprising. She has been a consistently great actor, and her last sci-fi movie simply doesn't reflect that. Spaeny has earned a chance to make a better sci-fi movie than Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Alien: Romulus is the perfect chance to prove just how much she's developed since her first film. Spaeny will be playing a character named Rain Carradine in Alien: Romulus, and she should be able to easily transfer all her previous experience into the role.

The trailer for Alien: Romulus gave a few hints about who Rain is, and what the role might demand of Cailee Spaeny. Rain seems to be a spiritual successor to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley from the original Alien films. Her similarities to Ripley, coupled with the few story details that are available about Rain, like the fact that her brother is on board the ship with her, indicate Spaeny will have a very meaty role to chew on. She'll likely have to play the part of a terrified survivor, a grieving sister, and a deadly warrior all at once. Luckily, Spaeny has more than enough range.

It's taken six years, but Cailee Spaeny finally has the sci-fi movie role she deserves. Her return to the genre will be quite different from her debut - Pacific Rim: Uprising is far from a survival horror movie - but it should be a marked improvement. Some of the best Alien movies have come in recent years, and based on Alien: Romulus' trailer and cast, the next installment should continue that trend. Cailee Spaeny could very well become a sci-fi icon thanks to Alien: Romulus, and her own talents as an actor.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo