Ridley Scott Reveals His Idea for How to Continue the Alien Franchise

The Alien franchise has come a long way from its space horror roots as Ridley Scott has taken the films into odd philosophical meditations on life with Prometheus and the more action-oriented Alien: Covenant. Those hoping that this was the end of the franchise’s flailing may be disappointed to hear that Scott is still thinking about how to move forward with the series, despite no confirmed plans for another film to be made after the disappointing performance of Alien: Covenant.

“I still think there’s a lot of mileage in Alien, but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve,” Scott told the Los Angeles Times. “What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”

The last two Alien films have functioned as a sort of origin story for the xenomorphs we see in the first film. Michael Fassbinder’s android David has gone a bit insane and started to develop these xenomorphs, and we see him working towards that goal when he takes over the Covenant ship at the end of Covenant. That setup was clearly leading to the final development of the xenomorph, but fans haven’t really been engaging with Scott’s origin story.

Legacy franchises aren’t easy to come by, so if Ridley Scott really wants to make another Alien film, Disney, which acquired the franchise in the Fox buyout, will probably let him.