When Prometheus debuted in 2012, it left some fans wondering where all the xenomorphs had gone. The deadly monsters were a staple of the franchise and, suddenly, they were no more. At least not until director Ridley Scott recognized fans’ “ground-zero reaction,” as he recently described it to Yahoo Movies.
The director intended to put xenomorphs behind him, thinking that they were passé after four films. In fact, he even described them as “done” and “cooked” to Yahoo in 2014.
“I think it wears out a little bit,” he said at the time. “There’s only so much snarling you can do.”
Fans, however, disagreed. Even though they turned up at the box office and spent about $403.4 million on Prometheus tickets worldwide, many were unhappy to see the series turn its back on the monsters that had hooked them. When he learned this, Scott reflected and came to feel he had been “wrong” to do away with them.
Although the famed director said that he doesn’t consider fans to be “the final word,” he did see them as “a reflection of his doubts.”
“I think you’re not sensible if you don’t actually take [them] into account,” he told Yahoo.
With Alien: Covenant, he took that experience into account and made sure to bring back the film series’ famed beasts. Scott discussed the return of the xenomorphs in a 2015 interview and hinted that Alien: Covenant would look at the origins of the terrifying life form.
“It felt bio-mechanoid, it felt like a weapon,” he told The Wrap of the xenomorph. “And so the movie will explain that, and reintroduce the alien back into it.”
The future of the creature seems to be bright now. Scott is already looking ahead to an Alien: Covenant sequel and told Yahoo he expects to shoot the John Logan-penned story “within a year.” Beyond that, he suggested he could possibly make another Alien film, so it would seem there are more xenomorphs in our future.
Alien: Covenant will hit theaters May 19, 2017.
