If you’re at all familiar with the iconic director Ridley Scott, you’re likely aware that the eighty-eight-year-old could not give less of a f--k. He is a dude who is going to say whatever he is going to say; any filter that was once there appears to have been eroded away by decades spent in the industry. Thus, anytime Scott goes on a press tour of any kind, he’s liable to say any number of things at any given time.
For instance, while promoting Gladiator II, he called the film “the best thing I’ve ever made,” only to then turn around while promoting his new film The Dog Stars and refer to this new film as “probably the best movie I’ve done since The Martian,” which was made over a decade ago.
In essence, Scott’s opinions are in a state of flux, as are all of ours, but he is spending days-upon-days doing press any given year and just letting those changing opinions fly. The latest such incident that warrants attention came in the form of the director’s remarks about his planned return to the Alien franchise. After news recently broke that Scott would be taking the reins and making his long-awaited Alien: Covenant sequel, the filmmaker is speaking out about his view of the previous film in the series, which he did not direct, Alien: Romulus. Ridley Scott said, “I’ve gone back” to the Alien franchise because Romulus was “OK” but the series “needs some help.”
This is interesting for a whole host of reasons. For one, Scott was a credited producer on Romulus, and has continued to play a key role in the architecting of the series behind the scenes. Notably, for a period of decades, Scott had entirely stepped away from the franchise. However, he returned in 2012 to make Prometheus, a prequel to the original film, and followed that film up with Alien: Covenant. Covenant ended on a cliffhanger, setting up a third prequel film from Scott, but not long after, the franchise was acquired by Disney in their swallowing of 20th Century Fox. This resulted in Scott’s more divisive (read: interesting) approach being put on ice in favor of prioritizing a more standard, fan-favoring legacy sequel. The result was director Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, a movie steeped in references, homages, and even outright recreations of scenes, lines, and beats from earlier films in the franchise.
Regardless, Romulus proved to be a hit upon release, and things looked to be moving forward with a straight sequel to it, with Álvarez returning to write and direct. However, after completing the script, the filmmaker and the franchise ultimately parted ways, with many rumors swirling about Scott’s involvement in that decision. One particularly popular rumor was that Álvarez wanted to feature Michael Fassbender’s David (a character from Prometheus and Covenant) in his sequel, and that Scott scoffed at the idea of utilizing the character he had built and developed for years in this way.
While there was little to legitimize such claims at the time, Scott’s recent comments about how the next film “needs some help” and his less-than-stellar appraisal of Romulus in hindsight seem to lend some credence to these ideas. What remains unclear is if a Romulus sequel is still moving forward in parallel with Scott’s Covenant sequel, or if that idea is simply being put on hold altogether. Time will tell.
Personally, I am incredibly excited for Scott to return and deliver that long-awaited trilogy-capper, as I am a huge fan of both Prometheus and Covenant and was left lukewarm on Romulus’ ‘greatest hits’ approach. Whatever happens from here, it continues to be an absolutely fascinating era for the Alien franchise.
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