Despite recent calamitous examples to the contrary, a subtle sign that the cosmos might be healing arrived in a recent Los Angeles Times interview with director Ridley Scott, who told the paper that a sequel to 2017’s Alien: Covenant is in its very early stages.
The filmmaker was promoting his latest film, The Dog Stars, when the discussion turned to the current slate of projects from his Scott Free productions, and the status of the Alien franchise was broached. While there was no update on a script or on whether Scott would indeed direct the prequel trilogy-capper, he told the paper that the film would follow up with xeno-daddy David (Fassbender) as he creates a “brave new world for himself.” Emily Zemler, who conducted the interview for the Times, said that Scott remains “fascinated” by the essence of David, an AI gone rogue from its original protocols, which, as Prometheus and Covenant show us, spawned the “perfect organism” for crushing skulls with protruding second jaws. “AIs can go off,” Scott says. “And if they do, it’s like a bomb.”
Before xeno-heads get their hopes up, it’s worth noting that while Álvarez took the prospect of directing a Romulus sequel and blew them out of the airlock, there’s no official update confirming that a Romulus follow-up has been nixed. There’s also that pesky Scott Free slate the 88-year-old director must first contend with, which includes a Treasure Island update with Hugh Jackman, an adaptation of John Harris’ WWI novel Covenant With Death, a film set in Africa about how “we’re punishing the planet,” and that Bee-Gees biopic that’s been gestating in Scott’s gut like a certain squiggly alien we could mention.
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