Ridley Scott On The Future Of “Alien”
The “Alien” franchise seems dormant for now. With Ridley Scott’s proposed “Alien: Awakening” cut down following the failure of “Alien: Covenant,” talk of a direct “Aliens” sequel completely dead, and the franchise now under the heel of family-audience centric Walt Disney Pictures – the xenomorphs are likely to go extinct right as the franchise hits its 40th anniversary.
Speaking to
Heat Vision this week, Scott spoke about not just the making of the iconic 1979 original but also how he thinks his original film is the end of where the franchise can go – effectively dismissing everything that came after including James Cameron’s “Aliens”:
“There’s only ever the one. It’s like trying to do a sequel to ‘2001’. Fundamentally, you can’t. 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’.
Interestingly enough, I was never asked to do the sequel. 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.”
Scott did return to the franchise years later with the two prequels, both of which received mixed reviews. Asked if he sees a future for the franchise, he says possibly: “Go on, leave that [the familiar elements] behind, and see where it can evolve. So we’re looking where we’re going to evolve.”