‘Alien: Awakening’ Will Follow ‘Alien: Covenant’ Along With (Maybe) Three More Sequels
We thought James Cameron was being rather ambitious byplanning four sequelsto his sci-fi hitAvatar, but thenRidley Scottcame along and let us know about how big plans for the future of theAlienfranchise. We already know the creator of the originalAlienfrom 1979 was seemingly prepared tomake sequels until he keeled over on set, but we didn’t think he was actually going to follow through on that promise.
In a recent interview, Ridley Scott revealed that the title for the next film in his xenomorph franchise will apparently beAlien: Awakening. However, that sequel will not take place afterAlien: Covenant, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg of new installments of theAlienfranchise. There’s a lot to chew on here.
Alien: Awakening Will Take a Step Back
Speaking withFandango, Scott said that the next movie in theAlienfranchise would take a step back before we move closer to where the originalAlienbegins. The director, somewhat confusingly, explained:
“There will be another one before we kind of literally and logically, clockwise, back into the rear back head of [the original] Alien.”
Don’t worry, the interviewer was a little confused too, and thankfully, they got some clarification on the matter by asking what the narrative timeline of the sequels would look like. Scott explained:
“It will go Prometheus, Awakening, Covenant….[it’s] fairly integral where this colonization ship is on the way….”
During this part of the interview,Alien: CovenantstarKatherine Waterstoninterrupted Ridley Scott because she thought he was giving too much away. So Scott reeled things in a bit before adding:
“But yes, there will be more after this. I think that was the question. If this is successful, and then the next one, and then there will definitely be three more.”
So ifAlien: Covenantis successful, we’ll getAlien: Awakening, which apparently takes place betweenPrometheusandAlien: Covenant. Then after that, Scott thinks that they have three moreAlienmovies to make. That’s one more movie than initially planned when Scott first set out to make this sequel. Remember whenAlien: Covenantwas the first in a new trilogy?
However, the way Scott said that he had one more more movie before they head back towards the originalAlienmakes me think that those three other sequels he’s talking about will be the trilogy that actually leads back to the originalAlienwhileAlien: Covenantwill actually be the end of the trilogy that began withPrometheus. We really don’t know, because it’s all very confusing, and my nose just started bleeding.
Do We Need This Many Alien Sequels?
As someone who was lukewarm onPrometheus, my excitement forAlien: Covenantis firmly in check. While I think this looks like a return to the roots of theAlienfranchise, it doesn’t particularly look like anything special either. I’m not sure that I can honestly say that I’m excited for the sequel as much as I’m curious. Therefore, the thought of four moreAlienmovies just feels like white noise to me.
There’s always the chance thatAlien: Covenantwill reinvigorate my interest in theAlienfranchise, and it might even justify why there will be four more movies that Scott has in his head. At the same time, there’s also the chance that theseAliensequels turn into one of the many projects that Ridley Scott talks about but never ends up in front of a camera.
Knowing that Scott has such an ambitious plan for the future of the franchise, it’s easy to see whyNeill Blomkamp’s approach to continuing theAlienfranchiseisn’t happening anytime soon(or likely ever). But if Scott just keeps padding out the story betweenPrometheusandAlien, I can’t help but think that seeing an alternate take to theAlientimeline afterAlienswould be preferable.
Anyway, it’s safe to say that 20th Century Fox won’t be abandoning the Xenomorphs anytime soon. We’ll have a better idea as to whether or not fans are still interested in what Ridley Scott wants to do with the franchise whenAlien: Covenantopens onMay 19, 2017.
