Ridley Scott Says It’s “Doubtful” The New ‘Alien’ Movie Will Continue The Story Of ‘Prometheus’ And ‘Alien: Covenant’
20th Century Studios
“That’s in process,” he said of the new film. “We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”
Alien: Covenant made $240 million worldwide on a reported budget of $97 million when it was released in 2017, but that’s also a deeply weird movie that is definitely not exactly the kind of thing you’d expect the family-friendly Disney overlords to approve. (I feel like Disney execs would have a heart attack if they saw this scene in the dailies of one of their movies during production.) So it’s not surprising that they wouldn’t be interested in continuing Scott’s story about Michael Fassbender’s David and the quest for the origins of humanity. Since brand management is the name of the game at the Mouse House, it makes sense that they’d either want to bring back Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley for one last ride (though that doesn’t sound likely, based on her recent comments) or just lean on the familiar Alien name to start fresh with a more Disney-approved storyline.
The question is: will anyone want to see that? Prometheus and Covenant are odd movies, but at least they’re clearly exploring the personal interests of a director. The danger in sanding off all the edges of what makes these movies interesting is that Disney might, ironically, take one of its most popular newly-acquired properties and crash it straight into the ground.
