With Disney's recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, the future of the Alien franchise is currently unknown. Some fans worry that the "house of mouse" isn't even interested in bringing the Xenomorph back to the big screen, while others just want to see the franchise taken in a whole new direction, avoiding the completion of Ridley Scott's prequel trilogy.
In a new chat with The Hollywood Reporter, reflecting on 40 years of the franchise, Scott notes that discussions on the topic have taken place, with Scott himself pushing for an "evolution".
"You get to the point when you say, ‘Okay, it’s dead in the water.’ I think Alien vs. Predator was a daft idea. And I’m not sure it did very well or not, I don’t know. But it somehow brought down the beast,” said Scott, reflecting on the road to Prometheus. “And I said to them, ‘Listen, you can resurrect this, but we have to go back to scratch and go to a prequel, if you like.’ So we go to Prometheus, which was not bad actually. But you know, there’s no alien in it, except the baby at the end that showed, itself, the possibility. I mean, it had the silhouette of an alien, right? The alien [origin concept] is uniquely attached to Mother Nature. It simply comes off a wood beetle that will lay eggs inside some unsuspecting insect. And in so doing, the form of the egg will become the host for this new creature. That’s hideous. But that was what it was. And you can’t keep repeating that because the joke gets boring."
He continued, "I think it’s just tough. The joke wears out. Once you’ve seen it twice, three times, it’s no longer frightening. So we’re looking where we’re going to evolve."
"Leave that [past] behind, and see where it can evolve."
What would you like to see done next with the franchise? A prequel? A sequel? A whole new direction entirely? Let us know in the comments!