Ridley Scott, the famed Alien director, has not slowed down in his old age. The late-stage phase of his career has been quite prolific. Since turning 79, Scott has released seven movies, including the soon-to-be fully released The Dog Stars. Beyond that, eight movies are in post-production. He’s almost 90, and he’s not remotely slowing down.
Among those movies since turning 79 is Alien Covenant, the second and final prequel to his acclaimed Alien movie that spawned a series. That movie followed up Prometheus, which sought to explore the events before Alien and perhaps build out the world and offer some insight as to how it came to be.
The film ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and it was dropped. The next Alien projects were from Fede Alvarez, another sequel in Romulus, and Noah Hawley, who made Alien: Earth for television. It was widely assumed we’d just never see the end of that prequel trilogy. That is not the case anymore, though.
Ridley Scott to Complete Alien Prequel Trilogy
This is not a drill, folks. Ridley Scott is returning to the Alien franchise he kicked off to finally conclude the prequel saga that was left so open-ended. It always seemed as if Scott had planned a third film, but it just wasn’t meant to be. With Fede Alvarez stepping in for the modern era and a television show spawning, Ridley Scott seemed to be on to other things.
And while he has done a lot of other things, he isn’t slowing down, and he’s not leaving his franchise behind. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, he confirmed that he’s still got plenty in the works, including a sequel to Alien Covenant. In it, he will bring back Michael Fassbender’s David.
In the sequel, David will be creating a “brave new world for himself,” and the director said he’s personally fascinated by the character of a malfunctioning AI. “AIs can go off,” Ridley Scott said. “And if they do, it’s like a bomb.” What that entails for the rest of the Alien universe remains to be seen.
Both Prometheus and Covenant are highly divisive among fans of the series. Prometheus was moderately successful at the box office, grossing over $400 million on a roughly $130 million budget. It was decently received by critics (73% on Rotten Tomatoes), but fans weren’t as on board (68%, which is particularly low for a fan score).
Covenant was less successful, grossing $241 million on a roughly $111 million budget. It was even more poorly received, getting a decent if uninspiring 65% critics’ score and a lowly 55% audience score. In other words, the fans did not like it, and they may, as a result, not be terribly thrilled that Scott, who has been rather hit-or-miss lately, is returning to complete the trilogy.
AI may be very prevalent now, but it’s something Scott has explored in tons of films, including the original Alien and Blade Runner, where the AIs look like humans and are thematically meant to be treated as such. As for AI today, he’s not sure it’s doing very well.
“The uneasy question is: Can the AI only be as good as the information fed into it?” Scott added. “If I say ‘Here’s a blank canvas, write me such and such,’ would that just be a melange of millions of other scripts? Probably. But the danger is it’ll pass that point and become smarter than we are.”
Scott is somehow still going and not remotely slowing down. Fans may be split on his return to the franchise, but he has a story to tell. It’s a story he set out to tell years ago and has had to take a hiatus, but it appears that eventually, he’ll be back to finish it all off.
