Alien: Covenant Sequel Would Bring Back the Engineers

The future of theAlienfranchise is in a state of flux at the moment, butRidley Scott’s plans for the next movie—if it ever gets made—are quite interesting. Scott returned to the sci-fi genre and the franchise that launched his career with the 2012 prequelPrometheus, which spurred a bevy of hot takes but grossed over $400 million worldwide. That’s not bad for an R-rated sci-fi thriller about the meaning of life, so 20th Century Fox greenlit a follow-up with Scott returning. That film was 2017’sAlien: Covenant, a mixed bag of a sequel where Scott kind of backtracked and tried to give fans what he thought they wanted: more xenomorph, less philosophy.WhileCovenanthas its fans, the film grossed only a fraction of whatPrometheusmade, bringing in a mere $240 million worldwide. That’s not an out and out disaster (although the film didn’t even crack $100 million domestic), but the drop from its previous installment was disappointing for Fox, leaving the future of the franchise in doubt.[caption id=“attachment_641109” align=“alignright” width=“360”]Image via 20th Century Fox[/caption]In the wake ofCovenant’s release, word broke thatFox was “reassessing” the futureof theAlienfranchise, even though Scott had already pitched two more sequels that he wanted to make. In fact, months beforeCovenanteven hit theaters Scott said the next movie wasalready written. And now, thanks toEmpire(viaHN Entertainmentand/Film), we have an idea of what theAlien: Covenantsequel would be.Penned byJohn Logan, who co-wroteAlien: Covenant, the follow-up film is calledAlien: Awakeningand would pick up after the endCovenantand followMichael Fassbender’s David as he brought the franchise full circle, back to the planet we first saw in the originalAlien:

“Logan’s script would have seen the return ofÂPrometheus’ Engineers, with that species’ survivors coming after the genocidal David. Setting-wise, Scott said it was obvious ‘We’re gonna actually go to the planet’. by which we assume he means LV-426.”

It always felt like there was more to be done with the Engineers, and indeed that wasScott’s original plan forPrometheus 2before he changed course. Around the time ofPrometheus’ release, here’s what Scott said about the sequel:

“Because [the Engineers] are such aggressive fuckers … and who wouldn’t describe them that way, considering their brilliance in making dreadful devices and weapons that would make our chemical warfare look ridiculous? So I always had it in there that the God-like creature that you will see actually is not so nice, and is certainly not God. As she says, ‘This is not what I thought it was going to be, and I think we should get the Hell out of here or there won’t be any place to go back to.’

That’s not necessarily planted in the ground at the tail end of the third act, but I knew that’s kind of where we should go, because if we’ve opened up this door — which I hope we have because I certainly would like to do another one – I’d love to explore where the hell [Dr. Shaw] goes next and what does she do when she gets there, because if it is paradise, paradise can not be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous.”

As we now know, Scott killed offNoomi Rapace’s character Dr. Shaw inCovenant, so we’re now left with only David. It’s unclear what, exactly, Scott has/had planned for when David does confront the Engineers, but again around the time ofPrometheusthe filmmakerspilled the beanson the franchise’s religious ties, saying that it would be revealed that the Engineers previously sent an emissary down to make humanity behave, and the emissary’s name was Jesus Christ:

“We definitely did [have that in the script], and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an ‘our children are misbehaving down there’ scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you may say, ‘Lets send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it.’ Guess what? They crucified him.’”

Again, Scott’s plans and ideas have evolved a lot sincePrometheuswas released, so there’s no guarantee this is in the cards. And perhaps more importantly, we don’t even know if Scott will be allowed to finish out this franchise.Covenant’s box office tells the studio that audiences aren’t interested in the direction Scott’s take is going, so it’s more likely that we’re in store for a reboot or remake of some sort in a few years. Of course Disney’s acquisition of Fox becomes official in January, so the new corporate overlords no doubt have plans of their own for one of Fox’s most valuable franchises.

For now, for fans of the weird places Scott was taking this franchise, it’s interesting to hear where he wanted to take this series. And it’s not as if he’s waiting idly by to make anotherAlienmovie—he’s weighing his next project as eitheraMerlinmoviefor Disney oraGladiatorsequel.