Damon Lindelof explains why he won't write Prometheus sequel

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"Much to the delight of all the fanboys..."

Prometheus turned out to be one of the most divisive movies of 2012, but plans for a sequel are already afoot, with the film’s open-ended conclusion certainly leaving the door open for further adventures.

However, screenwriter Damon Lindelof will not be writing the second instalment on account of the amount of time such an undertaking would demand.

“The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite,” explains Lindelof. “Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it. And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus .

“The idea of building a sequel to it - from the ground up this time - with Ridley is tremendously exciting. But at the same time, I was like, ‘Well that’s probably going to be two years of my life.’ I can’t do what J.J. [ Abrams ] does. I don’t have the capability. I’m usually very single-minded creatively. I can only be working on one thing at a time.

“So I said to him, ‘I really don’t think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff. And I don’t know when the other stuff is going to be done.’ And he was like, ‘Well, okay, it’s not like I asked you anyways.’ He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him. But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don’t see myself being involved in Prometheus-er .”

Looks like there’s a spot open then. Given the reaction the first film received, we imagine there will be quite the queue for one of the most thankless tasks in sci-fi…

George Wales
George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.