After crafting a sci-fi horror masterpiece, Ridley Scott stepped away from the Alien universe for many years.
After three sequels made by others, he returned for the prequels of Prometheus and Covenant. He’s also been a producer on various related projects.
He’s also got the 20th anniversary of Kingdom of Heaven 4K release, and while doing that promotion he inevitably was asked about Alien.
Screen Rant asked him if he would return to the franchise, and he seemed to signal his work is done:
“I think I felt it was deadened after 4. I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim’s [James Cameron] was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good. And I thought, ‘F—, that’s the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars’…
A number of years after, I said, ‘I’m going to resurrect this,’ [and wrote] ‘Prometheus’ from scratch – a blank sheet of paper. Damon Lindelof and I sat then hammered out ‘Prometheus’. It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more.
I said, ‘It needs to fly.’ No one was coming for it, [and] I went once again [and made] Alien Covenant, and it worked too. Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”
So it looks as if the Exec Producer role on FX’s Alien: Earth is Scott’s last gig in the world of Xenomorphs.
Alien: Earth lands in July.
