Ridley Scott Apologizes For ‘Prometheus,’ Dials Back ‘Alien’ Sequels
Ridley Scottadmits that he was “wrong” onPrometheus.
The much-malignedAlienprequel was a stumbling block for the renowned director, who had planned to launch a second coming for hisAlienfranchise to flesh out the origins and backstory of the terrifying Xenomorphs. His upcoming filmAlien: Covenantcontinues the thread thatPrometheusstarted, taking place long before the 1979Alienfilm. Scott had intended to make atleast four more sequelswhich would lead up to or take place concurrently as the originalAlienmovie. But negative reactions toPrometheushas him rethinking his plans.
Following the backlash toPrometheus, which explored astronauts' discovery of an ancient humanoid civilization whose actions led to the birth of the first Xenomorph, VFX supervisorNeil Corbuldsaid thatScott “listened to the audience” and learned “that they want more aliens” in the upcoming movie.
HenceAlien: Covenantbecoming a semi-remake of the originalAlien, bringing the series back to its sci-fi horror roots — and even bringing back forgotten elements from the first movie like the spaceship’sMUTHURA.I.
In an interview withYahoo, Scott spoke about the negative reactions toPrometheusand how that changed his approach forAlien: Covenant.
“….we discovered from it that [the fans] were really frustrated. They wanted to see more of the original [monster] and I thought he was definitely cooked, with an orange in his mouth. So I thought: ‘Wow, OK, I’m wrong. The fans, in a funny kind of way — they’re not the final word — but they are the reflection of your doubts about something, and then you realize ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I was right.’ I think that’s where it comes in. I think you’re not sensible if you don’t actually take [the fans’ reaction] into account.”
There’s probably something to be said here about fans dictating art, or whether the artist should prioritize their creativity over criticism, but I trust Scott as a director to marry his vision with fan demands.
Those fan demands are already making an impact on Scott’s plannedAlien: Covenantfranchise, which he originally planned to last for up to three more sequels. Plans for the next film, tentatively titledAlien: Awakening, are already in progress, with Scott planning tostart production in no less than 14 months. But Scott will probably dial back the number of sequels after that, giving a noncommittal response when asked by Yahoo:
“I don’t know. [I’ll make] maybe two more [films], or maybe one more, I don’t know.”
