Ridley Scott

A new Alien opens in theaters this Friday; Alien: Covenant is the first movie in the beloved sci-fi franchise since 2012’s Prometheus, and the first with the word “alien” in the title since 2007’s timeless classic Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. Audiences will decide whether Covenant is a worthy sequel (we liked it), but even if they do, the overwhelming odds are they will find it no better than the third best movie in the history of the series. That’s because the first two movies in the series — Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens — are amongst the best sci-fi films ever made.

When someone says they’re going to keep doing something until they die, they’re usually being figurative. But it would seem that Ridley Scott, now at age 79, fully intends on making the Alien franchise into his tomb. It’s impressive enough that he’s forged the most gore-heavy entry this deep into both the series and his own career, but Scott’s not losing his edge any time soon. In a new interview with Yahoo, Scott spoke about the future of the Alien movies, and you might wanna put on some shades, because the future’s looking real bright.

The title of Alien: Covenant directly refers to the spaceship carrying the film’s human characters, and indirectly refers to the film’s most pervasive theme: The tense relationship between gods and their creations. Students of the Old Testament learn about God’s covenant with Abraham, which promised the prophet the land of Israel in exchange for, among other things, his male descendants’ foreskin. Some gods work in mysterious ways; the ones in Alien: Covenant certainly do.

Alien: Covenant hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but that doesn’t mean that Ridley Scott can rest on his laurels just yet. With Prometheus, he expanded the Alien universe, and with Covenant he’s poised to expand it some more. That leaves plenty of room for his prospective slate of future Alien films, starting with his Covenant follow-up, which is currently untitled, but will be ready to film in a little more than a year.

If you’re one of the people who thought that Ridley Scott’s Prometheus was a franchise-killer, then you’ve probably awaited the first round of Alien: Covenant reviews with a strong sense of dread. Maybe even the same degree of dread you experienced while watching Alien for the first time, come to think of it. And while I’ll passionately defend Prometheus for days  —  I’ve recently come around on that film in a big way  —  there’s no denying that Alien: Covenant is the biggest question mark of the summer. Could Scott build a bridge between the grandiose science-fiction of Prometheus and the grounded horror of Alien?

It wouldn’t be a Ridley Scott movie without a well-timed, ominous viral campaign. Much like the series of short videos starring the crew of The Martian on their space station, Alien: Covenant has come out with two transmissions from the people on that particular doomed ship, intercut with some creepy found footage of their expedition onto a new planet. We all know that no matter how good the intentions of the Covenant crew are, it’s all going to go terribly, terribly wrong, thanks to our Xenomorph friend.

The ending of Alien — one of the scariest movies of all time — isn’t exactly happy, but at least one of the members of the Nostromo crew survives. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley lives to fight another day, and another alien, but the original ending that Ridley Scott suggested wasn’t nearly as upbeat.

It’s kind of strange, considering the genre’s popularity; interview anyone in the entertainment industry, and you’ll find that just about everyone not actively working on a superhero film considers them to be a pox on the cinema. Ridley Scott’s the latest talent to confess to super-fatigue, in a new interview with Digital Spy where he expresses a larger concern for the overall state of film art. 2016 was a humbling year for the Hollywood studio system, and one of its biggest names can’t help but take notice.

Earlier this week Michael Fassbender appeared on BBC’s Radio 2 and spoke about the upcoming Prometheus sequel/Alien prequel Alien: Covenant. The actor seemed to reveal the name of the new Xenomorphs in the movie.

If the latest rumor regarding Alien: Covenant proves to be true, then you should definitely turn back now because this could be a potentially major spoiler. A new report offers additional details on Katherine Waterston’s role in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus follow-up, in which she plays the commander of a derelict crew — we already knew that, of course, but what we didn’t know is that there just might be something more to Waterston’s part.

Ridley Scott is currently filming Alien: Covenant in Australia, and while we have yet to see the first official image from the upcoming Prometheus sequel, Michael Fassbender has been offering up a few ideas of what we can expect — mostly in terms of production design, which he’s compared to Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner. But some new set photos have popped up online to give us our first real look at Covenant, and they are somewhat unnerving.

Yesterday was “Alien Day,” the latest “holiday” concocted by studio marketing teams to continue interest in their franchises (see also: Star Wars Day, Force Friday and Back to the Future Day). The crass commercialization can almost be overlooked because Alien Day actually had some cool events for fans, including screenings with cast members and some cool new collectibles that only the luckiest fan