I guess we kinda saw this coming. After all, the Alien franchise is pretty much Ridley Scott’s baby. What we didn’t expect is a sequel to already be in the works this early, especially since we don’t even know how Alien: Covenant is going to perform at the box office.
In an interview with IGN, Ridley Scott had this to say regarding working on a sequel to Alien: Covenant.
We’re writing [a sequel] now, as we speak. I’ll be filming that within 14 months. It’s good when it’s good. If the sequel’s good, then it’s worthwhile.
Ridley Scott also went on to discuss the always-in-limbo Neil Blomkamp’s (Chappie, Elysium, District 9) Alien sequel.
They wanted to do Alien, er, Awakening by Neill Blomkamp. I said fine. I was going to be the producer. If I could have, I would have. Except I do question – why have both [Blomkamp’s Alien and Scott’s Alien] out there? It seems like shooting your big toe off – it doesn’t make sense.
But they didn’t go forward with it, Fox, so I just kind of kept out of it. I mean, I’d literally ignited this thing to bring it off the ground again, because it was lying there dormant on a shelf. I had this thing to bring it back up – but here we are.
I’ve always been a firm believer that sequels should only be made if the story calls for it. And “good” may not be the best word to use to describe Scott’s latest film. Our review of Alien: Covenant reads, “A visually sumptuous adventure with a crew who avoid the pitfalls of Prometheus, Alien: Covenant doesn’t really address any of the big mysteries of the Alien universe but does beg the question “Why is THIS the story Ridley Scott wants to tell?”
