Alien Romulus: Offspring Engineer Explained & Newborn Hybrid Comparison

The Newborn was a grotesque human-Xenomorph hybrid born aboard the USM Auriga in the 1997 film Alien: Resurrection. Its creation stems from the cloning experiments conducted by the United Systems Military. These experiments aimed to clone Ellen Ripley along with the Xenomorph Queen embryo inside her. However, the cloning process resulted in genetic contamination between Ripley and the Xenomorph Queen, leading to unforeseen consequences. The Queen, instead of solely producing Ovomorphs, developed a second reproductive cycle, complete with a womb. This deviation allowed her to give birth as well as laying eggs, resulting in the Newborn—a nightmarish creature born of this unnatural blending of human and Xenomorph DNA.
The Offspring was introduced in Alien: Romulus as one of the cosmic horror aliens, this one was born from a disturbing blend of human and alien genetics. It originates from Kay, a pregnant woman who, in a desperate attempt to protect her unborn child, injects herself with a vial of the black goo pathogen. This pathogen, known as Z-01 here in the timeline, is a recreated version of the original alien substance, Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15, based on residual material extracted from the Xenomorph specimens created in the Romulus lab. The black goo pathogen, infamous for its role in creating the Xenomorphs and corrupting life forms, mixes with Kay’s fetus, leading to a monstrous baby that gestated in just a matter of hours.
Now when we compare them both side by side, we first have to take a look at size. The Newborn was stated to be 2.7 meters or around 9ft in height. The Offspring from Romulus however was seen to stand around 3.65 meters or 12 feet tall. When the newborn emerged from the womb of the Xenomorph queen, it was already 9ft tall and through the rest of the movie, it never grew an extra inch at all. Meanwhile, the Offspring was the product of a synthetic black goo designed specifically for humans to accelerate and slow down their metabolism at will. So, when it was first seen, it was merely the size of a small baby, in an eggsac filled with the acidic blood. In a matter of minutes, it grew to an astonishing size, defying every law of physics, as is the case of the black goo’s non Newtonian characteristics.
As for the visual aspects, the clearest difference are their faces. The Newborn appears like a skull wrapped in a thin layer of skin, with sunken eyes, human like teeth and an elongated head that merges with its hunched back. The Offspring however, appears more like an engineer with a round bald head, black beady eyes and a mouth full of metallic teeth, hiding a secondary jaw like a Xenomorph. The Newborn clearly appears as a hybrid of a human and a xenomorph, born from the womb of a xenomorph queen and possessing the DNA of the Queen as well as that of the cloned Ripley. The Offspring from Romulus appears like a hybrid between a Xenomorph, a human and an engineer, born from the womb of a human female after the synthesized black goo, the Z-01, was injected into the pregnant female and it travelled to the fetus, changing its very nature and essence.

Alien Offspring Art credits:
César H.Garibay
Digital Sculpting

[Vicky_Heyes]

Newborn was honestly kinda cute and I wanted to give it a hug. The offspring is fucking nightmare fuel and people in the theater gasped when that thing appeared.

[alinakirill]

I find it ironic that the Newborn, whose mother was a Queen and had a more alien appearance, was capable of feeling sympathy and even affection, while the offspring born to a human inherited nothing but pure sadism.

[Nikolai-qe]

The Offspring was creepy as hell, i was never "afraid" of lately designed horror movie monsters, but this one, damn, thats a very well designed Monster.

[revelare_xvii]

The fact that the offspring is Robert Bobroczkyi’s very first acting role is crazy. To think he would go from playing basketball to creature acting.

[maxallen]

The crazy thing is that the offspring isn’t a cg character and that it’s a guy in a suit. robert bobroczkyi is the name of the kid that portrayed the offspring onscreen. He’s 24 and 7’7” tall 😳 freakishly tall!!! But he did an amazing job. So tall that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on screen was real and he must’ve been terrifying to work with

[GTChris]

Although I find the offspring more frightening in terms of looks. It's the newborns ability to feel love for Ripley and it feeling betrayed by Ripley as it undergoes horrific agony while screeching the word "noooo" is what to this day freaks me out when I see it. The colonist asking the marines to "kill me" comes in second, followed by the facehugger attaching as Navarro struggles to take it off and the offspring feeding on its mother both on a shared third place.

[Jed_Rowahnn]

The Newborn was a Xenomorph with an added human soul. The Offspring was a Human with it's humanity taken away.

[dogopuppieseu]

Give a like if you felt sorry for the Newborn dying

[_jake]

I'm really glad this Creature was not spoiled in the Trailers or the Marketing, The Offspring is basically The Newborn if it was done right.

Edit: People when I say One is better than the Other does not mean I'm right, there's a difference between Opinion and Fact.

[Hammern]

The offspring Alien creature... is one of the most batshit scary creatures I have ever seen. Damn, they did an ace job on the design of that thing!

[baenae]

Everyone in the cinema room said what the fuck is that thing 😂

[adamsjay]

Look like Xenomorph and Slender Man has baby.

Slender morph

[xenoboy]

Can you make a VS between them? Also a very good and Detailed Video

[zionleach]

They're both cursed to look at. Usain Bolts records would be broken.

[nendoroiddancing]

The new born wasn’t even fully grown remember it use to take like a day for the aliens to grow up it wasn’t even hour alive it had the potential to be one of the biggest xenomorph

[Tomtycoon]

Still it's crazy that the offspring grows up from a baby to a 4meter tall creature in a few minutes...

[ENANDA]

Need a Part 2 : Newborn - Offspring 1v1 basketball game

[Dburke]

I rember rolling my eyes when I was like another alien baby, but when you see it fully formed that was one of most unsettling creatures I've seen in a scifi movie in a while. Something about it anatomically just makes me so uncomfortable.

[pdawg]

The offspring was a more than welcome addition. Seen the black goo and loved the fact it had ties to Prometheus then as soon as I seen the pale face appear from the egg I knew what was happening. I was so hyped😂 covenant really did walk so this could run. Looking foward to what’s next but I hope they don’t focus too much on the xeno/engineer hybrids. It was cool to see but I don’t want them to over do it

[archysimpson]

This video has made me appreciate the newborn, and I think if they just didn't have the beer gut they'd look way cooler.