The House of Mouse got a whole lot more than the X-Men and Deadpool when they bought out Fox a couple of months ago. But nobody really seems to be talking about the vast collection of classic cinema Disney now has their hands on.
One of those properties is the Alien horror franchise, and so far, no one knows what the studio’s plans are for it, or if they’re even interested in bringing the terrifying Xenomorph back to the big screen.
But sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter, legendary director Ridley Scott, who set off the series 40 years ago, confirmed that he’s at least given the idea some thought:
“You get to the point when you say, ‘Okay, it’s dead in the water.’ I think Alien vs. Predator was a daft idea. And I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast,” Scott explained, first reflecting on the road to Prometheus. “And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel, if you like.’
So we go to Prometheus, which was not bad actually. But you know, there’s no alien in it, except the baby at the end that showed, itself, the possibility. I mean, it had the silhouette of an alien, right? The alien [origin concept] is uniquely attached to Mother Nature. It simply comes off a wood beetle that will lay eggs inside some unsuspecting insect. And in so doing, the form of the egg will become the host for this new creature. That’s hideous. But that was what it was. And you can’t keep repeating that because the joke gets boring.”
Following the average, but underwhelming performance of Alien: Covenant in 2017, of which Scott returned as director, it’s not irrational to think that people may be getting bored of the pattern as it’s been told time and time again.
However, Scott also says he’s not ready for the franchise to die completely.
“I think it’s just tough. The joke wears out. Once you’ve seen it twice, three times, it’s no longer frightening. So we’re looking where we’re going to evolve. Leave that [past] behind, and see where it can evolve.”
Given that there’ve been no reports of a new Alien film in sight – and there are only rumors about an Alien: Covenant sequel – it looks like the director could be teasing another addition to the franchise under the new corporate leadership. And if it ever came to be, it’s sounding like it’d take the series in a new direction, which is totally fine by us.