Ridley Scott Doesn’t Think You Can Ever Make A Good ‘Alien’ Sequel & Talks Future Evolution Of The Franchise

Ridley Scott, much like his contemporaries James Cameron, George Lucas, and even Francis Ford Coppola, is a tinkerer. Whether it’s going back and recutting “Blade Runner” or creating multiple prequels to ‘Alien,’ for better or worse, the director isn’t the type that just lets his films rest. But in the case of the latter franchise, he does think that it’s about time to evolve or die.

Speaking to THR, Ridley Scott goes through the long, difficult process of bringing his 1979 film “Alien” to the big screen. It’s truly fascinating to read. However, he also talks about what came after, namely the mostly terrible sequels and spin-offs, as well as his own prequels. And while he gives an excuse for why prequels are okay, he tends to think that his “Alien” original film is the end of where the franchise can go in the future.

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“There’s only ever the one,” Scott said. “It’s like trying to do a sequel to ‘2001.’ Fundamentally, you can’t.”

He continued, “Really, with the greatest respect to ‘Star Wars,’ the best film by far is the one that George directed, right? By miles. It was unique. It was absolutely wonderful to me. It was the fairy story of all fairy stories in space. And to follow through is a tough call. So, same with ‘Alien.’”

Of course, we’re not sure if it the filmmaker purposefully forgot to mention James Cameron’s “Aliens,” which many fans would contend is the high-point of the series. Perhaps, Scott doesn’t consider it a true successor, since Cameron’s version is much more action-based and less horrific. Or maybe, he just didn’t care for it?

The filmmaker does say that when it came to doing the sequel to his 1979 classic, it was never an option. “Interestingly enough, I was never asked to do the sequel,” he said. “Maybe because I was such a tough guy when I was doing it they didn’t want me back. But I was also in the habit of not wanting to do a sequel then either. So I would never have done it.”

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Scott, obviously, did return to the franchise, years later, with his two prequels “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant.” And the reason he chose to do prequels instead of furthering the story of the franchise is that he feels that the ‘Alien’ franchise is “dead in the water.”

“You get to the point when you say, ‘Okay, it’s dead in the water,’” he said. “I think ‘Alien vs. Predator’ was a daft idea. And I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast. And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel, if you like.’”

He added, “So we go to ‘Prometheus,’ which was not bad actually. But you know, there’s no alien in it, except the baby at the end that showed, itself, the possibility. I mean, it had the silhouette of an alien, right? The alien [origin concept] is uniquely attached to Mother Nature. It simply comes off a wood beetle that will lay eggs inside some unsuspecting insect. And in so doing, the form of the egg will become the host for this new creature. That’s hideous. But that was what it was. And you can’t keep repeating that because the joke gets boring.”

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That being said, does Scott see a future for the franchise? Well, the short answer is maybe.

“Go on, leave that behind, and see where it can evolve,” he declares. “So we’re looking where we’re going to evolve.”

With Disney in control of Fox now, it’ll be interesting to see just how the franchise evolves, if it does evolve. In 2019, where franchises and established IP is almost the only thing earning major profits, it’s unlikely that ‘Alien’ will sit on the shelf for too long. Let’s see if Scott or the studio has one more trick up their sleeve.