Ridley Scott: New Alien film in development, may not be tied to Prometheus

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Sometimes we come across ALIEN-related news that actually sounds pretty cool. Neill Blomkamp was developing a direct sequel to ALIENS that would have brought Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn back as Ripley and Hicks, that was cool. ALIENS writer/director James Cameron expressed interest in helping Blomkamp get that movie made; even cooler. It was recently revealed that franchise producers Walter Hill and David Giler have written a 50 page treatment for an ALIEN sequel that Hill said would "tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley." I like the sound of that, too.

Then Ridley Scott drops a quote to remind fans that he's still guiding the franchise, which – after seeing what he did with the prequels PROMETHEUS (watch it HERE) and ALIEN: COVENANT (watch that one HERE) – really kills any excitement I might have for another ALIEN movie.

Scott has previously said that he wanted the next film to continue the story of the evil android David (Michael Fassbender) and dig into "the world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself onto a new planet." He has also said that he wanted to finally address the question of why the crashed ship found at the beginning of the original ALIEN contained so many eggs. He didn't share any plot ideas during a recent interview with Forbes, but he did confirm that a new film is 

in 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 to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question."

Honestly, it's not quite clear to me exactly what Scott is saying in that quote – is he saying that the next film has drifted away from the David story during the process of development, or is he saying that they're done trying to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to ALIEN films? Even if the next film doesn't focus on David, I can't imagine that Scott wouldn't want to address the character in some way, since COVENANT ended on a cliffhanger. 

I'm just glad that Scott is now working on the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves, which is about "two androids who are given the job or raising human children on a new planet, untouched by man. However, religion arrives in the atheistic paradise, and the differences create conflict. Creating an epic alien utopia doesn’t come cheap." Sounds like that show will allow him to explore the sort of ideas he was unnecessarily working into the ALIEN franchise with PROMETHEUS and COVENANT.