For those of us who love the noisy auteurism of the Alien movies, the franchise’s wild tonal shifts have always been more feature than bug. Each film plays to the strengths of their directors, shifting the focus from anticapitalism to militarism to masculinity. And while Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus may indulge the director’s passion for killing young adults onscreen in terrible ways, it also serves an important role within the broader Alien franchise. Alien: Romulus carries over key concepts from Ridley Scott’s prequels to confirm synthetics as the true star of the series.While synthetics are present in each of the Alien movies, Scott’s prequels are the first to put their unique consciousness at center stage. Michael Fassbender’s performance as David — a Mary Shelley-esque exploration of how mankind’s creations can come to resent the failings of its makers — may be the emotional anchor of both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but Scott’s emphasis on David’s perspective was often held as a disconnect between franchise and fans. Those hoping for more sci-fi monster movies were surprised to find two films waxing poetic on genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. For many, the currency of the franchise is corporations and creatures, and synthetics are best kept as an engaging footnote on the margins of the movies.But then there’s N-D-255 (“Andy”). Director Fede Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues are given the important task in Alien: Romulus of stitching together two franchise threads; the screenplay explicitly connects the dots between Alien and Prometheus, building a world where Weyland-Yutani and the black goo are equally weighted in movie lore. Adding to the existing Alien canon — convoluted as it is — is not an easy lift, which is why it is no surprise that Álvarez and Sayagues focus on synthetics as its core connective tissue.We get to know a lot about David Jonsson’s Andy in a short period of time. We learn he is a childhood companion of Rain, Cailee Spaeny’s tough-luck colonist, who was salvaged by her father and given an underclocked operating system. We learn that he has a fondness for dad jokes and that he is programmed with only one directive in mind: do what is best for Rain (an order he will struggle with as xenomorphs overrun the station). Once Andy is given an upgrade, we also see him become acutely aware of the gap between himself and others, grappling with his otherness even as he attempts to do right by the person he knows as his sister.In casting a Black actor to play the subject of passive discrimination, and positioning Andy’s archaic operating system to read as a form of neurodivergency, the writing team behind Alien: Romulus anchors the movie in Andy’s unique perspective. His arc — which culminates in him actively choosing how he wants to experience the world around him — is the film’s emotional and narrative driver, and Jonsson’s nuanced take on a conflicted mind is a standout performance in a franchise with no shortage of great actors and great roles. And all of this is possible because Alien: Romulus chooses to put a synthetic front-and-center in the film.Synthetics have become the beating heart of the Alien universe. | 20th Century StudiosNo one would have faulted Álvarez for keeping the focus on humans. There’s probably a perfectly acceptable version of Alien: Romulus that pits the crew against Rook — the film’s digital reincarnation of Ian Holm and still its biggest misfire — and sticks more closely to the blue collar humanity found in Scott’s first movie. But for Álvarez, the needs of our synthetic progeny is key to understanding this version of the future. Andy is the star of Alien: Romulus because the Alien movies are about what it means to be human: to struggle, to fight, and to survive. Andy, like David before him, exists both above and below humanity on the food chain, and no filmmaker worth their salt would choose to pass on the narrative potential that offers.Given the success and subsequent renewal of Alien: Earth — not to mention Elle Fanning’s screen-stealing turn as Thia in Predator: Badlands — it seems clear that synthetics are now the beating heart of the Alien franchise onscreen. And so this returns the xenomorphs to their rightful place at the margins of the series. Despite the beauty of their character design, there are only so many ways that xenomorphs can murder supporting characters before we reach a point of diminishing returns. Keeping the spotlight on synthetics keeps the spotlight solidly on what it means to be human while keeping the monsters in the shadows — the place where all good monsters belong.Alien: Romulus is now streaming on HBO Max.