Oscar-winning director, Ridley Scott now thinks that his fan-favorite Alien franchise needs to get rid of the xenomorphs in the future. The antagonist had been featured in the recent entry in this series in which he returned and directed Alien: Covenant.
Speaking in a round table interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scott had expressed complete disinterest in revisiting this series’ alien species.
“We went to Covenant to perpetuate the idea and re-evolve the universe of the alien, who — I think the beast has almost run out, personally,” Scott said. “You’ve got to come in with something else. You’ve got to replace that.”
He then added, “And so I was right, I was ahead of the game,” and was maybe referring to the negative-to-mixed reception to the Prometheus sequel, which had chosen to center around the beast.
Scott has expressed this sentiment before, having noted on the Empire Film podcast, “I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over.”
He then continued, “But what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.’s. The world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have quite a big layout for the next one.”
When he was asked about a follow-up to Covenant this year, Scott said “I’ll probably be filming it within a year,” adding that scribe John Logan had given him the script for a sequel that he plans to shoot after All the Money In The World and The Cartel.
Delving a bit further into when the film might begin development, Scott revealed “It’ll be out within a year and nine months. It’s weird when you’re writing, doing, planning, thinking about franchises, it’s amazing how it opens up and starts to evolve.” Declining to divulge a title for the project, Scott did tease he might make “maybe two more [films], or maybe one more.”
Starring Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England and Benjamin Rigby, Alien: Covenant was made on a production budget of $97 million, and earned over $240.7 million at the worldwide box office. By comparison, Prometheus earned a whopping $403.3 million internationally.
