Both the Alien and Predator franchises are arguably in better places than they’ve been in decades, with the Predator franchise gearing up to release Predator: Badlands in theaters this November, and with Alien: Earth currently airing.
Due to this recent success, Ridley Scott was recently asked by The Guardian if he would like to still make a third Alien prequel—along with another Gladiator—and he kept his answer short and to the point. “If I get an idea, for sure,” he stated.
The thing is, he does have an idea. Before the Disney acquisition, Scott and his team were prepping the third prequel, then tentatively titled Alien: Awakening, which was set to follow the further adventures of Michael Fassbender’s nefarious synthetic, David, as he landed on LV-426, the planet from the original Alien film.
Between this coy answer and the fact that Scott has been involved in all of Disney’s Alien projects thus far in some capacity (as an executive producer on both Romulus and Earth), it very much sounds like Prometheus and Covenant fans could get their wish, in the form of a final Scott-directed prequel.
The history of the Alien franchise under Disney
In 2019, the Walt Disney Company bought 20th Century Fox for $71.3 billion. In doing so, Disney acquired numerous properties it had long sought after from Fox’s iconic run of films from across nearly a century of filmmaking.
While there were numerous franchises that took precedence over others, such as X-Men and Fantastic Four, which were two properties that the House of Mouse and its resident golden goose, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had been eager to get their hands on for some time. However, there were other franchises that seemed like far less of a priority for Disney, one of which, early on, was Alien.
Initially, Disney seemed uncertain of if it was even going to do anything with the rights to this iconic science fiction horror franchise. After all, despite previous connections to the Disney parks of all things, Alien wasn’t exactly up the modern-day Disney’s alley.
A few years after the purchase, as Disney took stock of all the various things they had acquired, they began to wonder what a new Alien film might look like, along with Predator. One thing became evident, however: It didn't look like Disney was interested in following up on the previously released installment in the franchise, Scott’s own Alien: Covenant.
While the film was a critical and financial success, it was divisive and strange in ways that general audiences weren’t exactly sure what to do with. As a result, the planned third installment in Scott’s prequel trilogy, which was set to bring closure to the events of Prometheus and Covenant, was ultimately shelved.
Instead, Disney tepidly moved forward with straight-to-streaming projects for both Alien and Predator. The first to make it to release was Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey in 2022, which released on Hulu to a glowing response from fans and critics alike. As a result, the plans for the new Alien film shifted, and Alien: Romulus instead received a proper theatrical release, becoming a critical and financial hit.