Movies
‘Alien’: Ridley Scott Plans to Shoot ‘Covenant’ Sequel Next Year!
When Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise with Prometheus, the 2012 film was supposed to be extremely different than Alien, yet carry the same DNA. It was also secretly supposed to be a prequel, bridging directly into Scott’s 1979 classic. After Damon Lindelof came aboard to do some rewrites on Jon Spaihts‘ screenplay, this bridge was removed with internal plans of creating a brand new trilogy. While publicly this will never be acknowledged, nothing went as planned, and Lindelof left Scott in the position of figuring out how to move the needle without him (Lindelof throws all sorts of conspiracy theories into his writing without caring how it affects the outcome). This nearly killed the franchise, while opening the door for Twentieth Century Fox to move forward with Neill Blomkamp‘s Alien 5, which would have brought Sigourney Weaver back for one final battle as Ellen Ripley. Then Star Wars happened. Scott has gone on record as crediting Star Wars for being the catalyst behind his return to the franchise, which also killed Blomkamp’s project. It also set the stage for a brand new Alien trilogy.
So, here we are, months away from the release of Scott’s Alien: Covenant, which is both a Prometheus sequel and Alien prequel. Opening on May 19th, Covenant using Prometheus as a stepping stone to launch into the new trilogy he’s targeting. The question remains, will the studio continue to back Alien films? Well, the fact that they’re bringing back Predator, now filming, and that Covenant looks like it’s an actual Alien movie as opposed to just carrying its DNA, I think it’s safe to assume we will at the very least make it to the next film. Scott is making the same bet.
In an interview with the Sidney Morning Herald, Scott reveals that he’s actually already planning to jump right back behind the camera on a sequel to Covenant.
“You’ve got to assume to a certain extent success and from that you’d better be ready,” he says. “You don’t want a two-year gap. So I’ll be ready to go again next year.”
And although there’s no quote, the site explains that, while working on Alien: Covenant, Scott had the next instalment written so he is ready to keep advancing the saga. This means that the next Alien is ready for launch as soon as Fox gives the greenlight!
Obviously, a massive box office flop could kill the future installments, but, with the promise of the return of the Xenomorphs, and the monstrous success of R-rated studio films (two of which – Logan and Deadpool – are also Fox), it’s hard to think audiences won’t show up when it’s release on May 19th.
With so many questions already surrounding Covenant, it’s impossible to even speculate what the future holds. One thing is for certain, Katherine Waterson is sure to be the face of the new trilogy.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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