When filmmaker Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise in 2012 for Prometheus, it generated a great deal of excitement among fans left underwhelmed by Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.
The movie drew largely positive reviews, as did its 2017 sequel, Alien: Covenant. However, Scott's exploration of the Xenomorphs' creation proved somewhat confusing, and neither movie made a big enough impact at the box office for 20th Century Fox to move forward with a third chapter.
Since then, we've had Alien: Romulus and FX's Alien: Earth, both of which were considered a return to form for the long-running sci-fi franchise. The sequel to Romulus hasn't come together as quickly as expected, and there have been rumours that Fede Álvarez walked away from the project when Scott stepped in and said he couldn't use Michael Fassbender's David.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times (via SFFGazette.com), Scott revealed that he's back at work on a new Alien prequel, confirming that it picks up with David creating a "brave new world for himself."
Unsurprisingly, given today's world, a rogue AI fascinates the director. "AIs can go off," Scott added. "And if they do, it’s like a bomb. The uneasy question is: Can the AI only be as good as the information fed into it? If I say 'Here’s a blank canvas, write me such and such,' would that just be a melange of millions of other scripts?"
"Probably," he continued. "But the danger is it’ll pass that point and become smarter than we are."
David is an advanced synthetic created by Peter Weyland, the founder of Weyland Industries. Introduced in Prometheus, David accompanies the crew of the USCSS Prometheus on its mission to discover humanity's origins. However, his fascination with creation and artificial life soon takes a sinister turn.
After surviving the events of that movie, David resurfaces in Alien: Covenant, where he conducts horrific experiments while attempting to create what he considers the perfect organism. Intelligent, manipulative, and devoid of genuine empathy, he develops a God complex and ultimately becomes instrumental in the creation of the Xenomorph.
The site also asked Scott for his thoughts on Prime Video's upcoming Blade Runner 2099 TV series, which he wasn't involved with.
"I can’t blame my lawyers and my agents at that time, but somehow we let 'Blade Runner' go," he said. "And when you’re not the author of the actual written word, you don’t have a piece." Scott did, however, give a thumbs-up to Alien: Earth (he was involved with that), calling it "pretty damn good."
Keep checking back here for updates on the future of the Alien franchise as we have them.