The titular alien in the Alien universe has been many different iterations over the years and throughout the various sequels, but by the time we got to Alien: Romulus, the Xenomorph was a whole new playing field, and they really started to look realistic.
This film takes place on an abandoned ship, where a group of young space scavengers, including Rain (Cailee Spaeny) attempt to utilize the cryostasis chambers, but they don’t get very far after an encounter with some facehuggers. Then came the fast-growing human–Xenomorph hybrid known as The Offspring, who then targets Rain.
The Offspring resembles the Engineers in the sense that it has human features mixed with certain Xeno abilities, but what’s even more unsettling is the behind-the-scenes footage that shows that the Offspring was really portrayed by an actor, not just a puppet or a CGI creation. Director Fede Alvarez has shared a video of Robert Bobroczkyi, the 7′ 7: Romanian basketball player, who portrayed the Offspring in very tall and creepy glory. The clip features Bobroczkyi calmly receiving direction while looking like the most terrifying human in the universe. He did not shoot a basketball, though.
Visual effects supervisor Daniel Macarin told Variety just how creepy it was when Bobroczkyi first arrived on set. “The first time saw the plates, and this 7-foot [tall] actor in there, in his costume. It was terrifying,” Macarin says. “They did such an amazing job with the look and the feel of that character that we knew that everything that we could bring to it was just going to help.”
The Offspring is Bobroczkyi’s first movie role, but Hollywood will always be on the lookout for really tall guys, so he should have a fruitful career, as long as nobody puts him next to Tom Cruise.