Alien: Romulus' Rook resembles the original legacy character Ash for a very particular reason. The new 2024 movie, which was directed by Fede Álvarez, takes place between the events of the original Ridley Scott science fiction horror classic Alien (1979) and its 1986 James Cameron-helmed sequel Aliens, which added heavy action elements to the mix. Romulus, which boasts a Certified Fresh score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $350.7 million against its $80 million budget, is the ninth theatrical installment in the long-running franchise, including the two crossovers with the Predator franchise that premiered in the mid-2000s.

For the most part, the Alien: Romulus characters - played by a cast that includes Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, and Isabela Merced - are original creations who have never appeared in the franchise before. However, the synthetic Rook, who plays a major part in the third act of the movie, while an original character, bears a striking resemblance to Ash from the 1979 movie. Ash, who was played by Ian Holm, was a crew member on the starship Nostromo who is revealed to be a "synthetic," an android working in secret to protect the interests of the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

Alien: Romulus' Rook Is The Same Synthetic Model As Ash From The Original Movie

Rook And Ash Are Separate Characters, But They Are Linked

While Rook and Ash look extremely similar, they are not meant to be the same exact synthetic. While they both occupy the same position in the narrative, betraying the characters at the center of the story in favor of corporate interests, they are merely synthetics who are the same model. Because of Romulus' proximity to the original 1979 movie on the overall Alien timeline, this allows for the two characters to be produced as part of the same Weyland-Yutani line of synthetics, which would have gone into production some time before the year 2122, when the original movie takes place.

Romulus takes place in 2142, twenty years after the events of 1979's Alien and 37 years before the events of Aliens, which takes place in 2179.

Each line of Weyland-Yutani synthetics looks virtually identical, though there are multiple different models that have been seen throughout the franchise. This includes Jonsson's character Andy, a malfunctioning synthetic who is the foster brother of Rain Carradine (Spaeny) and is programmed to protect her at all costs, though his prime directive shifts once he is reprogrammed using Rook's chip, allowing him to fall under the sway of Weyland-Yutani and pose another major threat to his companions alongside Rook himself, as well as the deadly Xenomorphs hiding on board.

What Rook's Appearance Means For The Alien Movies

Rook Connects The Alien Canon

The appearance of Rook is one of many ways that Romulus uses its storyline to connect threads from previous Alien movies. In addition to bridging the gap between the first two installments, exploring events that took place during the time when the original quadrilogy's main character Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was adrift in space in cryosleep, it also connects the events of the original quadrilogy to those of the Ridley Scott prequels Prometheus and Covenant. The appearance of a synthetic in the same line as Ash is meant to underscore the deep connections between every installment in the franchise.

[There is] a second synthetic with the exact same face, voice, and build [as Bishop].

In the franchise, there is a strong canonical precedent for multiple synthetics to be created from a single model, as well. Aliens first introduced the character of Bishop (Lance Henriksen) - to whom Rook's moniker is a reference, as both synthetics are named after chess pieces - a synthetic to whom Ripley slowly grew attached in spite of her initial distrust due to Ash's betrayal. Although Bishop was destroyed as of the beginning of 1992's Alien 3, Henriksen returns at the end of that movie as Bishop II, a second synthetic with the exact same face, voice, and build.

Why Alien: Romulus Bringing Back Ian Holm's Appearance Has Been Controversial

The Actor Was Resurrected Using CGI

The main reason that Ian Holm's Alien: Romulus role received widespread objections is the fact that the actor died in 2020, years before the 2024 movie went into production. His face was digitally recreated, while his voice was mimicked by British actor Daniel Betts, who has previously made onscreen appearances in projects such as Fury, War Machine, The Crown, and Sex Education. Recreating the face of an actor who cannot consent to the use of his image caused many viewers to become disgruntled with the film, as reflected in reviews across online platforms such as Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd.

Alien: Romulus kicked off production on March 9, 2023, and wrapped on July 3, 2023.

Another reason the digital resurrection of Ian Holm in Alien: Romulus stirred controversy is the fact that generative AI was used as one of the tools in the creation of Rook. This played into the ongoing controversy ing AI art and imagery in movie and television productions, reducing the number of jobs that go to human artists in the same fields. The same issue was faced by Marvel's Secret Invasion, which featured a title sequence using AI imagery, and Late Night with the Devil, which used AI-generated interstitial images in its faux 1970s telecast.