It’s unclear what the future holds for Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. How Disney feels about it after the Fox merger goes through is just part of the issue; there’s also the middling box office and lukewarm critical reviews. Scott returned to the sci-fi classic with 2012’s Prometheus, which received mixed reviews but earned over $400M, which ain’t bad. With last year’s Alien: Covenant, Scott tried to give fans a suspenseful horror movie with more Xenomorphs and the box office suffered.
As it stands right now we have no idea if the third movie, reportedly titled Alien: Awakening, will ever happen even though Scott has a couple of sequels already in mind. If it does, the story written by Alien: Covenant‘s John Logan would once again focus on Michael Fassbender’s murderous android, David, and possibly go back to the planet originally seen in 1979’s Alien.
Here’s how Empire describes it: “Logan’s script would have seen the return of Prometheus’ Engineers, with that species’ survivors coming after the genocidal David. Setting-wise, Scott said it was obvious ‘We’re gonna actually go to the planet’. by which we assume he means LV-426.”
If you recall, the Engineers were expected to play an even bigger role following Prometheus, but Scott’s plans for the franchise have been in a constant state of flux. I think it’s a safe bet that whatever idea there was for a third movie will change if/when it gets a green light.
