Late Alien actor Ian Holm returns for an Alien: Romulus cameo - but not as Ash

Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine facing a xenomorph in Alien Romulus. — (Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

Alien: Romulus was one of the most eagerly anticipated upcoming movies of 2024 and now it's finally out in theaters. Although it's a new story, which follows a group of young people as they explore an abandoned space station, the movie is set between the events of Alien and Aliens, which are two of the best alien movies ever made. That therefore allows room for connections, one of which was a major surprise...

We are now heading into spoiler territory for Alien: Romulus... you have been warned.

And if you haven't seen it already, check out our Alien: Romulus review for our verdict as well as our guide to the best movies and shows to watch before Alien: Romulus if you want to prepare yourself before heading to the theater.

Is Ash back? Who does Ian Holm play in Alien: Romulus?

ian holm as ash in Alien — (Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Alien: Romulus will leave your jaw on the floor for many reasons (particularly with that ending), but arguably the biggest shock is the appearance of actor Ian Holm. As you may remember, Holm portrayed Science Officer Ash in 1979's Alien, a sleeper agent who is revealed to be a synthetic acting upon secret orders to bring the xenomorph back to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. In that movie he met his end thanks to Ripley and Parker, who made sure to blast his head with a flamethrower so there's no chance of his return.

So, the question is then, how is Ash back in Alien: Romulus? Well, here Holm plays another character, Science Officer Rook, who the group discover lying on the ground in the space station - well, his torso anyways, as half of his body is missing. Clearly Weyland-Yutani made a series of androids with the same appearance, hence Holm portrays another character here.

Similar to Ash, Rook is dedicated to the Corporation with his prime directive being to "complete the mission". Now, that mission involves working on a compound that is made from a gene taken from the DNA of a xenomorph, something known as the 'Prometheus file'. Weyland-Yutani plan to use it to "upgrade humanity" believing that it will help save mankind, which is struggling to survive out in space.

Considering the group to therefore be expendable, as his only goal is to get the compound back to HQ for further development, Rook doesn't care if they live or die providing many an obstacle. Here he bites the dust this time when the space station explodes upon impacting against a nearby planet's rings. A suitable ending for such a villain.

Who plays Rook? How does the late Ian Holm star?

Now, onto the second question - how is Ian Holm portraying a new character here given that he passed away in 2020, especially for a significant chunk of the movie? Well, we have seen similar instances of late actors returning before, for example Peter Cushing as Tarkin in Rogue One and Christopher Reeve as Superman in The Flash. However, here not only is Holm played a fully formed role in Alien: Romulus, rather than appearing for a brief cameo, but he is playing a new character too.

Of course, for now we can only speculate as all will be supposedly be revealed following release, but in the credits Holm is listed as a 'facial and vocal reference'. Meanwhile an actor named Daniel Betts is created with providing the 'facial and vocal performance' which tells us that the two would have been blended together using digital trickery. For Tarkin's return in Rogue One for example, they had an actor perform the part but digitally replaced his face with Cushing's, using previous footage. Looking at the credits, our guess is that the same has been done here, but of course that is only speculation.

Naturally bringing back a dead actor will cause some controversy as it previously did with the likes of Cushing for Rogue One. And if it's revealed that AI was involved too in order to bring Rook to life, that will also prove to be a point of contention.

Alien: Romulus is out in theaters worldwide now. For more sci-fi action, here's how to watch the Alien movies in order, everything we know so far about the upcoming Alien TV series, and our favorite Alien facts that will blow your mind.

Emily Murray is a former Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar+, once responsible for overseeing all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Emily has previously worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more. When Emily isn't writing about film and TV, she can be found cuddling her cat on the sofa, likely bingeing New Girl for the millionth time (Nick Miller is the love of my life). You can also find her waxing lyrical about Christopher Nolan on a podcast dedicated to his filmography.