Ashley Roberts attends the Alien: Romulus premiere
Fede Alvarez, the director of Alien: Romulus, has revealed how his new sci-fi horror is connected to popular video game, The Last of Us Part II.
A fan's curiosity was piqued after Alvarez posted images of Romulus trading cards last week which bore a striking resemblance to characters from Naughty Dog's dystopian game.
Taking to the social media platform X (previously known as Twitter), the fan posted: "Tell us you've already played The Last of Us." The comment received a reply from Alvarez, who made a big revelation about one of the film's key characters.
"Fun fact: I was playing #TheLastOfUs2 while writing #AlienRomulus," the director shared. "The story of a pregnant Dina made me think of having the character of Kay be pregnant too. Then I cast Isabela Merced to play Kay. A year later she gets cast to play Dina on the HBO show... True story."
The admission sparked a flurry of reactions from X users. One shared: "My God, you can actually predict the future. You already saw the vision," while another added: "The universe gets what it wants."
Further adding to the conversation, another user remarked: "This is just the stars aligning! It was a great and very painful creative choice to make her go through to the most suffering, which rarely happens with pregnant characters. Made her feel all the more real as a person that you could attach to very easily. Isabela did wonderful! [sic]".
Isabela Merced's role as Dina in the second season of The Last of Us, which is set to hit HBO screens next year, was officially announced in January, reports the Mirror.
Fun fact: I was playing #TheLastOfUs2 while writing #AlienRomulus The story of a pregnant Dina made me think of having the character of Kay be pregnant too. Then I cast Isabella Merced to play Kay…. A year later she gets cast to play Dina on the HBO show…. True story. https://t.co/fABV9L1x1I pic.twitter.com/prDV6bHTYf
— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) August 24, 2024
The 23-year-old star opened up to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, expressing her enthusiasm: "I'm really excited for the world to see it. I loved [playing The Last of Us Part II] and it was really cool to see how the sets look exactly the same. It's so neat."
HBO's acclaimed series will welcome back Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, reprising their roles as the hardened survivors Joel and Ellie, in its eagerly anticipated second season.