Ridley Scott recently revealed that he once thought the ‘Alien’ franchise had come to an end after the release of ‘Alien: Resurrection.’
Speaking to Total Film, Scott admitted he “wrongly” believed the series had run out of steam decades ago. He said that after the fourth movie, he felt the alien creature that made the franchise so popular had “worn out.”
Scott explained that he originally thought the Alien series deserved to be as big as ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Star Trek.’ “I sat and thought, ‘What a pity because this is a huge franchise — maybe the biggest apart from Star Wars and Star Trek ever — with legs,'” he recalled. “Because there’s still a long way to go with it. So I sat down with Damon Lindelof. We sat down at a table, and spun a wheel to see: where could we go? And it all began with ‘Prometheus.'”
‘Prometheus’ and its follow-up, ‘Alien: Covenant,’ didn’t live up to the success of the first two films. But Scott had plans for more movies that would directly tie into the original ‘Alien.’ These plans were put on hold after the mixed reactions to both ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Covenant.’
The Alien franchise saw new life earlier this year with the release of ‘Alien: Romulus.’ It became a hit with both critics and audiences. This success convinced Scott that there is still untapped potential in the series. He shared that while he once thought the Alien franchise had ended, he now believes there is much more that can be done with it.
The ‘Alien’ series continues to expand with a new TV show titled ‘Alien: Earth.’ It’s set to premiere next year.
