As someone who has been pretty much a lifelong lover of the Alien film franchise, even I have to admit that the series has been quite parabolic. Really, after churning out two movies that are widely regarded as being some of the greatest science fiction flicks ever made, every installment in the time since has proven divisive amongst the general public and critics alike.
So, naturally, one would assume that the return of Ridley Scott, the man who kicked off this whole thing, would spell success, right? Well, unfortunately, his latest efforts – Prometheus and Alien: Covenant – also ended up being polarizing affairs. In fact, the latter underperforming at the box office inspired chatter saying that Fox had pumped the brakes on the franchise as a whole, likely in an attempt to reevaluate the property’s future.
That said, it certainly didn’t help matters when we had our emotions toyed with not long ago, as Scott teased a followup to Covenant before saying he thinks “the beast has almost run out.” Seriously, it’s hard to maintain a positive outlook after reading statements such as that.
To be honest, what’s to follow won’t exactly put a spring in your step, either. As it turns out, the folks at AvP Galaxy bring word from a tipster claiming to have worked on Covenant itself, and it’s not pretty:
“The sequel to Covenant was originally due to start preproduction this month in Sydney. After the box office results filming was cancelled, and a warehouse storage unit full of stuff was auctioned off a few months ago. So the original plan of pumping out another quickly has definitely changed with no immediate plans for anything.”
Even though the above should be taken with a grain of salt, it’s hard to overlook that it lines up with everything we’ve been hearing as of late. Plus, there’s Disney’s recent acquisition of Fox to consider, and it’s very much within reason that the Mouse House may want to pursue other creative directions rather than go forward with a straight up sequel to Alien: Covenant.
