The Big Picture

Ridley Scott initially planned multiple
Alien
prequels after
Alien: Covenant
, continuing the shift away from the Xenomorphs to AI and synthetics.
A
Covenant
follow-up, rumored to be titled
Alien: Awakening
, would have explored the evolution and development of synthetics in the franchise.
Scott’s future plans for the
Alien
prequel franchise remain uncertain at this time.

When Ridley Scott surprised audiences with Prometheus in 2012, fans weren’t sure at first whether the science-fiction epic was an Alien prequel or not. Online rumors, not to mention Scott himself, had suggested both that it was and that it wasn’t, but it wasn’t confirmed until the film was released. Five years later, we returned to Scott’s philosophical brand of science-fiction for Alien: Covenant, which dove even further into the genesis of the Xenomorphs, the existence of the Engineers, and the diabolical actions of the android David (Michael Fassbender). But what happens next? David is still out there, and the timeline has yet to catch up with Alien. Did we miss something? Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting answers any time soon.

Alien: Covenant Alien Covenant is a sci-fi horror film set in the Aliens franchise and takes place after the events of Prometheus. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members of the colony ship Covenant discover what they consider an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David, the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. An expedition deeper into the planet soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.Release Date May 19, 2017 Runtime 122 minutes Studio 20th Century Fox

A Third ‘Alien’ Prequel Movie Was in the Works
Following the release of Covenant, Ridley Scott was adamant that more Alien prequels were in the works. At one point, the filmmaker had even suggested up to three or four, giving an overly ambitious projection à la James Cameron’s massive number of Avatar sequels. At one point, Scott exclaimed that he would be keeping the Alien franchise going as far as six additional films, noting that he wasn’t going to “close it down again” in an interview with Sydney Morning Herald. But unlike Cameron, Scott apparently didn’t have the same follow-through when it came to making these films a reality. In a 2019 report by Variety, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original 1979 film, the outlet noted that the Covenant sequel was in the scripting phase, likely with John Logan still attached as the writer.

The following year, Scott was singing a different tune. “We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant,” Scott told Forbes. “Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well.” It’s been crickets on the Alien prequel franchise for a few years, that is, until the 2024 Alien interquel Alien: Romulus was announced. The existence of Romulus didn’t give fans of the two prequels much hope for more, as the franchise seemed to be returning to its horror roots from the original film, completely divorced from the philosophical and existential themes discussed in Scott’s installments. Still, the fact that he seemingly liked Romulus is a good sign, but many of us are still waiting for a Covenant follow-up.

What Would More ‘Alien’ Prequels Have Been About?

Although we don’t know exactly what Ridley Scott was planning for David with future installments of his famed prequel series, we do know that the Covenant follow-up — rumored to be titled Alien: Awakening — would have pivoted away from the Xenomorphs and focused more on the development of the synthetics. “I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over,” Scott told audiences on the Empire Podcast in 2017, around the same time Covenant hit theaters. “But what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.s.”

Scott is no stranger to analyzing the deeply human themes of artificial intelligence. Not only did he feature the android Ash (Ian Holm) in the original Alien, but he went on to direct Blade Runner, produce Blade Runner 2049, and helmed Raised by Wolves, a television series all about two androids raising human children. It would have been interesting to see whatever David would do next after the events of Covenant, especially since the character is nowhere to be found in any of the subsequent films. Alien, of course, had Ash as an antagonist, and Aliens brought in Lance Henriksen as the sympathetic Bishop, but Scott clearly has more ideas about the future of A.I. in our world — and in the darkest reaches of space.

Related What Happened to Neil Blomkamp’s ‘Alien’ Film? The scrapped project would have been a direct sequel to ‘Aliens’.

Right now, it seems as if Scott’s Alien prequels have been, at best, put on hold or, at worse, abandoned entirely. Its fate remains to be seen, and likely also depends on the success of Alien: Romulus, which is a standalone picture divorced from most of the franchise’s main characters. Can humans survive in a world that includes both synthetics and alien lifeforms? Who knows, but should Ridley Scott ever decide to offer us a more definitive answer, we’ll be here to see how it all plays out.

Alien: Covenant is currently available for streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

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