More than 40 years after he directed the classic first installment, it seems that Ridley Scott still can’t seem to get enough of the Alien franchise. The long-running sci-fi series has suffered from some major ups and downs over the decades, and has never managed to reclaim the all-time great status that the first two outings deservedly gained, but with over $1.3 billion in box office takings, you can see why the Xenomorphs keep coming back to our screens.
Following Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Scott has now helmed half of the six entries to date, and the 82 year-old no doubt feels some sense of ownership over the material, which would have sounded strange a decade ago when he showed absolutely no interest in ever returning to the fold. However, despite Covenant disappointing at the box office and Disney now in control of the rights following their takeover of Fox, the Gladiator director revealed in a recent interview that another new movie is in the works.
“That’s in the process. 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 franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”
Something about the idea of a Disney-backed Alien film just doesn’t sit right, and at this point there are probably much better options out there for a legend like Ridley Scott than directing his fourth franchise blockbuster in less than ten years. Prometheus and Covenant were certainly impressive on a visual level, but the storytelling was sorely lacking, and neither of them could manage to explore or even fully explain the countless grand themes that were being thrown around.
That being said, no money-making franchise is ever truly dead no matter who owns the rights, and if someone can crack the story and make it worth Disney’s while, then the newly-rebranded 20th Century Studios could soon once again be playing host to the iconic creatures.
