Ridley Scott says new Alien movie probably won't revisit Prometheus or Covenant

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Ridley Scott took a massive swing with both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Prometheus took the Alien franchise down a mysterious path, asking questions of what it means to be human, while Covenant turned Michael Fassbender's android into the true villain of the piece. Many fans were unimpressed by the prequels' lack of true horror elements as they eschewed what we expect from an Alien movie.

Both of those movies have their fans. Yet, director Ridley Scott has apparently heard the complaints and confirmed that any sequel/prequel/reboot/whatever will take us far away from the events Prometheus and Covenant.

“That’s in process," he told Forbes when asked about a follow-up. "We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant.

“Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.”

There have been recent reports that Sigourney Weaver could return for a fifth Alien movie. The actor has, indeed, read a new draft of the movie, which was reportedly completed in March this year

Perhaps Scott's not letting on as much as he really knows? Whatever the case, we would love some resolution to what happened in Covenant – perhaps that will just have to tie into a future sequel-sequel rather than prequel-sequel.

Jack Shepherd
Freelance Journalist

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.