Filmmaker Ridley Scott has a history of returning to his seminal works despite taking decades away from those franchises, as was the case with his return to Alien for the prequel movie Prometheus after more than three decades away. Earlier this year, the spinoff Alien: Romulus helped revive audience interest in the concept, resulting in recent reports that Scott would be developing a new installment, as he revealed in an interview how well the conclusion of Alien: Covenant set the stage for another movie. His remarks about the storytelling potential of that conclusion could mean Scott’s upcoming return could finish his prequel plans of setting up the events of Alien with a trilogy.
“Covenant is the best one [for a sequel] because it leaves the girl in the [cryo pod] and [Michael Fassbender’s killer android] David has alien eggs and 2,000 colonists hanging around. It’s a perfect beginning,” Scott shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
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When Scott delivered audiences Prometheus in 2011, there were reports that it would take another two or three movies that would continue the themes that the movie introduced to lead into the events of Alien. It would be six years until Covenant would be released in 2017, and while both films resonated with select audiences, they were a far cry from what the studio and filmmakers were hoping for and this prequel narrative stagnated seemingly indefinitely.
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Scott also reflected on how he wished he had retained more ownership over the franchise, not only due to the original Alien sequels, but also wishing he was more active about pursuing Covenant continuations.
“I watched Alien 2, 3, and 4 and realized, ‘Oh, you just ran that firmly into the ground,’” the director detailed. “Then I went back to [former 20th Century Fox chief Tom Rothman] and said, ‘Listen, there’s a way out. We should resurrect Alien with Prometheus.’ They made half a billion dollars — by now probably a billion with all the resales. It’s not what happens at the box office, it’s what happens after the box office. Then I went back with Alien: Covenant, and that was big and ambitious and maybe too intellectual to play as well. It still did $250 million, and I still stupidly didn’t lock it up. I don’t blame me, because I’m busy. I blame a couple other people, which is why we parted company.”
Scott’s most recent comments are a cryptic tease about his future with the franchise, at best, but between an upcoming Romulus follow-up and the newfound excitement for the series, there’s lots of storytelling potential for Scott and other filmmakers to explore.
Stay tuned for updates on the future of the Alien franchise.
Would you like Scott to finish his prequel plans? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!