Ever since Ridley Scott returned to his Alien franchise with Prometheus back in 2012, fans of the films had been hoping that he would continue giving us stories that involved a growing variety of super angry, scary ass monsters and the creation of everything we know. The director released the highly anticipated sequel to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, earlier this year, but critic and fan response was not entirely enthusiastic. The success of Covenant would have helped solidify plans to continue with Scott's planned additional Alien movies, but it sounds like Covenant wasn't enough of a box office heavy hitter for 20th Century Fox to be totally sold on continuing to invest in Scott's vision for the future of the franchise. Be worried, Alien fans.
While Prometheus and Alien: Covenant both had mixed reviews and audience reaction when they debuted, the former movie managed to rack up ticket sales of $403.3 million around the world. Covenant, on the other hand, ended its theatrical run with just a little over half of that, at $232.3 million. On top of that disappointment, the film's box office numbers dropped a whopping 71% in its second weekend, likely meaning that word of mouth was not helping its case any among moviegoers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, these numbers have, reportedly, led Fox to "reassess" Ridley Scott's intended sequels.
A few months ago, before Covenant's May premiere, Ridley Scott was very enthusiastic about his plans to keep Alien going for a long, long time. The director actually said that he could "keep cranking it for another six" films, but then, just a few days before the movie opened, he claimed to only have one or two sequels up his sleeve. At the time, Scott also noted that the next Alien movie was already being written, with plans to begin filming by 2018 and have it released by early 2020. But, with Fox reconsidering its position with regards to Ridley Scott and Alien movies, I wouldn't be surprised if those plans have already been halted.
So, what does this mean for the future of Alien movies? Right now, unfortunately, no one really knows, and it sounds like the bigwigs at Fox might still be in that camp, as well. All we do know is that if Fox doesn't want to try to completely reboot the franchise (which would surely enrage many, many fans), Alien: Covenant sent the series in a very certain direction that should, ideally, lead us right up to the original Alien film that kicked all this madness off in 1979.
Well, Alien fans, what do you think? Is it a good idea at this point to reboot the series? Considering the middling reception Covenant got, would you like to see someone other than Ridley Scott (cough, Neill Blomkamp, cough) play around with the franchise again? Is this all just too messy, and you want everyone to leave Alien alone forever so you can just keep pretending only the first two movies exist? Let us know in the comments below, and we'll be sure to keep you updated when we get more news on the future of the Alien franchise.
