More Alien Movies Will Happen, Ridley Scott Says

This year's Alien: Covenent was not the huge box office success that many were expecting to be, putting the future of the long-running sci-fi horror franchise in some doubt. Only last month, director Ridley Scott suggested that the series may have run its course. However, Scott has now stated that he does hope to continue making more Alien movies.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Scott explained that he would take a different approach to the next film. "We are [going to make another], we are", he said. "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.

"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."

While these comments do seem slightly at odds with those that Scott made in November, they do suggest that his issue is with the Alien itself. In that earlier interview, he explained that he made Covenant to cash in on the success of 2012's Prometheus. "I figured it was a good piece of business to follow through Prometheus, which, from ground zero, had good lift-off, " he said. "So we went to Covenant to perpetuate the idea and [revive] the franchise of the Alien. [However] I think the beast has almost run out, personally."

Covenant made $240 million worldwide, much less than Prometheus's $403 million take. Prior to this, Scott had been talking enthusiastically about the future of the series. In March, he suggested that the next movie would be called Alien: Awakening, and that the series would continue for several more films beyond that. "There will be more after this. If this is successful, and then the next one, and then there will definitely be three more," he said. "If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I'm not going to close it down again. No way."