It appears the future of theAlienfranchise is once again uncertain. Anticipation was mighty high for directorRidley Scott’s return with 2012’sPrometheus, and indeed despite some mixed reviews, the sci-fi pic grossed a hearty $403.3 million worldwide. Scott intended forPrometheusto relaunch the franchise in an intriguing way, but while he was busy makingExodus: Gods and KingsandThe Martian, filmmakerNeill Blomkampconvinced Fox to givehis own separate ideafor anAlienmovie a go. However, as soon as Scott got wind of this, he forged ahead withPrometheus2,effectively killing Blomkamp’s movie—which would have seenSigourney Weaverreprise her role in a sequel toAliens.
Scott’s return resulted inAlien: Covenant, a massive, hard-R-rated follow-up toPrometheusthat’s basically a hybrid between aPrometheussequel and anAlienripoff. This one was also somewhat divisive, and its box office dropped 71% in its second weekend, ending its worldwide run with just $232.3 million—just a little over half of whatPrometheusmade.
Scott has made clear that he has plans forsomewhere between 1 and 3 moreAliensequelsthat will wrap this whole franchise up and tie it neatly intoAlien, butTHRreports that while Scott is off making his crime dramaAll the Money in the World, Fox is “reassessing” the two intended sequels that Scott has pitched to the studio.
What this means is unclear, butCovenantcertainly left things on a cliffhanger that sets up some sort of confrontation involvingMichael Fassbender’s David. The David stuff was the best part aboutCovenant, and it felt like all the gore and horror was uninteresting to Scott—something he threw in to hopefully please fans. I like seeing Scott make weird sci-fi on a massive scale, so I’m definitely down to see anAlien: Covenantsequel, but given the disappointing box office performance it’s unclear if Fox is interested. Obviously Fox is going to keep makingAlienmovies, so hopefully this doesn’t mean we’re in for yet another reboot or some schlocky spinoff. I think we’ve learned enough from theAlien vs. Predatormovies.
What do you think folks? Would you be down for anAlien: Covenantsequel? Do you want to see Scott finish his arc or would you rather see the series start over? Sound off in the comments.
