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.
