The Alien franchise was determined to get back on track while honoring the whole series with last year’s Alien: Romulus. A new entry in the universe is also on the way with the TV series, Alien: Earth. A trailer just dropped for the FX show and creator Noah Hawley explained his vision for the project, “The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.“ Alien: Earth will “explore the formation of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the race to create android life.”
While Ridley Scott helmed the 1979 original (as well as a couple of series prequels), he lent his involvement to Romulus and Earth as an executive producer. But will Scott continue to explore the horrors of space? According to Variety, the director stated,
Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”
Scott said the Alien series is “spreading like wildfire.” He elaborated, “I think I felt it was deadened after 4. I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim’s was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good. And I thought, ‘Fuck, that’s the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars,’ which I think is phenomenal. At least, I think the first one by George is seminal. It was as seminal as 2001. To me, it was that important in terms of film language and where you go next.”
Scott explained that his return to the universe in Prometheus was a long-gestating passion after Alien: Resurrection, “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.”
