The box office performance of Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant was such that it raised questions about whether or not Fox would continue with the franchise. However, the veteran filmmaker has always been adamant that there is at least one more movie left in this story and he’s reiterated that another Prometheus follow-up is coming that will continue to focus on AI.
Speaking to EW, Scott said “We are [going to make another], we are. I think what we have to do is gradually drift away from the alien stuff.”
“People say, ‘You need more alien, you need more face pulling, need more chest bursting,’ so I put a lot of that in Covenant and it fitted nicely,” he continued. “But I think if you go again you need to start finding another solution that’s more interesting. I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting.”
The shift in focus from alien creatures onto Michael Fassbender’s monstrous android David has proven to be one of the most divisive elements of this new series, but the fact that AI is where his interest really lies should come as no surprise to anyone who’s watched Prometheus and Covenant (and anyone who’s read an interview with him about the films). One of the biggest problems with Covenant was that it did feel like two halves of separate films, with the (often very good) “Alien movie” scenes feeling like a compromise to those who didn’t feel the xenomorphs played a big enough role previously, not to mention a marketing campaign that sold it as a gory return to the raw horror of the first film.
It will be interesting to see what concessions, if any, Scott feels he needs to make following the disappointing returns for Covenant. We’re not opposed to more of David’s genetic tinkering, necessarily, but…y’know, we love the monsters.
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