Alien: Covenant's box office may have killed off Ridley Scott's planned sequels

Legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott has openly declared that this year’s ‘Alien: Covenant’ was by no means the last film he intended to make in the iconic sci-fi horror series – but he may need to hold his horses.

It seems that, after ‘Alien: Covenant’ didn’t prove as big a hit as expected, studio 20th Century Fox may be slamming the brakes on Ridley Scott’s plans for the franchise.

This claim comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who note that, after the ‘Alien’ prequel/’Prometheus’ sequel took only $232 million worldwide (off a reported $97 million budget), the studio “will have to reassess two intended sequels Scott has pitched.”

Scott made his name with the original 1979 ‘Alien,’ and his belated return to the series with 2012 prequel ‘Prometheus’ prompted much excitement from fans, after ‘Alien: Resurrection’ and the two ‘Alien Vs Predator’ films sold the property short.

However, on arrival ‘Prometheus’ proved divisive, with many fans feeling it strayed too far from the original concept, introducing a pondering theological element which didn’t go down well in all corners, and contradicting certain aspects of established series lore. Still, this didn’t stop the film from taking over $403 million worldwide.

‘Alien: Covenant’ had been intended to bridge the gap between these disparate ends of the franchise and bring it back to its roots. Like ‘Prometheus,’ it mostly went down well with critics (both films score in the 70s at Rotten Tomatoes) – but in this instance, that wasn’t enough to draw the audience it needed.

Scott had initially proposed making as many as six more ‘Alien’ films before scaling back his vision to two – but now, a big question mark hangs over whether Fox will give him the green light for those after all.

No doubt some fans may be hoping this could open the door for Neill Blomkamp’s proposed ‘Aliens’ sequel to finally get off the ground – but we wouldn’t hold our breath on that one.

The prolific 79-year old director is currently at work on his next movie, kidnapping drama ‘All the Money in the World,’ which he is poised to follow with crime thriller ‘The Cartel.’

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