As our world continues to get smaller, it probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez took inspiration from a particularly dark and gritty video game released in recent years, namely The Last of Us: Part II. Brief, targeted spoilers for both that game and film to follow!
Spotted by Eurogamer, Álvarez revealed on X over the weekend that he was actually playing The Last of Us II while writing the script for Romulus, and the storyline revolving around Dina's pregnancy was the catalyst that inspired him to have the character of Kay deal with her own nightmare birth scenario.
Álvarez would ultimately cast Isabella Merced to play Kay in Romulous. In one of those interesting quirks of fate, Merced has also been announced to play the role of Dina in Season 2 of the upcoming The Last of Us adaptation from HBO. You couldn't write this stuff! Quite the gamer, Álvarez even included a subtle nod to Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation in the film.