Ridley Scott's Unmade Alien Sequel Leaves A Brutal Hole In The Franchise Timeline

20th Century Fox

Welcome to The Best Movies Never Made, a look back at the most fascinating, strange, and tantalizing films that never actually made it in front of cameras — and maybe should have.

The year was 2012. Ridley Scott had released the brilliant "Alien" prequel "Prometheus," a film that left us with more questions than answers while proving to be immensely controversial. "Prometheus" does more than contextualize the events that lead up to Scott's 1979 heavy hitter, "Alien," it boldly subverts our understanding of human evolution and introduces a brand of cosmic dread that was never explored in the franchise before. 

Despite the film's mixed public reaction, "Prometheus" signaled Scott's impassioned return to a franchise he helped inaugurate, and the rare opportunity to explore the most intriguing corners of "Alien" mythology. Sure enough, this excitement contributed to the film's astounding box office success, and cemented Scott's plans to follow it up with three more prequel films.

Scott was in high spirits about "Prometheus," and repeatedly explained the film's purpose in this 2012 interview with Bloody Disgusting:

"The very simple question was 'Who the hell was in that ship? Who is sitting in that seat?' and 'Why that cargo?' and 'Where was he going?' No one asked the question, so I thought, 'Duh.' [...] They're [the other franchise directors] all bright guys. Jim [Cameron] and David [Fincher] and the French guy [Jean-Pierre Jeunet], and I thought 'Wow, duh.' And I just kind of sat and thought about it for a while [...] then when they finally put it to bed in 'Alien vs. Predator,' I thought 'You know what? This is a good idea here.'"

It was a good idea. Although Scott's "Alien: Covenant" answers more pressing questions, its follow-up entry remains unmade, leaving a gaping void in the "Alien" timeline.

20th Century Fox

While 2017's "Alien: Covenant" provided narrative closure for archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), Scott was also passionate about the term "paradise" for thematic reasons. "Prometheus" was originally supposed to be titled "Alien: Paradise," while "Covenant" was initially called "Alien: Paradise Lost." "Covenant" painstakingly explores what this idea could mean for Shaw and the franchise's dark world. "Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous," Scott told Collider before "Alien: Covenant" hit theaters, a sentiment that lines up with her character's horrifying fate in the 2017 film. 

"Covenant," however, was never supposed to be the end of the road. As early as 2015, Scott had confirmed plans to make two "Prometheus" sequels after "Covenant." The sequel to "Covenant" was supposed to answer questions about the titular creature in "Alien," primarily, who might have made it, and where it came from.

While such a roadmap was ambitious, there was little reason for doubt at the time. Scott was partially emboldened by the impending release of "The Force Awakens" in December 2015, which marked a watershed moment for the "Star Wars" franchise. "'Star Wars' will be a juggernaut. Why do you think I'm doing sequels?" Scott quipped to The Hollywood Reporter that November, and that film went on to make $2 billion worldwide. But everything hinged on the commercial success of "Covenant," which unfortunately received mixed critical reviews and underperformed at the box office.

The case for "Covenant" is complicated. While the film features baffling narrative turns, it also takes a fun, gnarly route to expand the "Alien" universe. "I always saw the Alien as a type of biological warfare," Scott told THR in 2015, which became the core thesis for "Covenant" and its unmade sequels.

And the next sequel would've been titled "Alien: Awakening."

20th Century Fox

Unlike "Prometheus," which was always supposed to take the cosmic horror route to explore the origins of humankind, the vision for "Alien: Awakening" changed a couple of times. In December 2017, Scott spoke to Entertainment Weekly and mentioned a plan to "gradually drift away from the alien stuff." This sounded counterintuitive, but Scott argued that he had already recreated the hallmarks of the franchise in "Covenant." 

"I think AI is becoming much more dangerous and therefore more interesting," Scott continued, possibly hinting at Michael Fassbender's David, who reverse-engineered the primordial pathogen to create a Protomorph in "Covenant."

Fast-forward to November 2018, and the premise of "Alien: Awakening" was reported to have undergone a major revamp. As we wrote at the time, "Covenant" writer John Logan was handling the script, which would follow David's clash with the Engineers on LV-426, the moon where the Xenomorph was first discovered. 

This development would've allowed "Awakening" to seamlessly lead up to Scott's 1979 classic. It was also an opportunity to unpack the religious symbolism in "Prometheus," and explain why the God-like Engineers forsook humanity. In 2012, Scott told Fandango that "Prometheus" initially teased that Jesus Christ was an Engineer "emissary" whose wrongful crucifixion turned our creators against us. This shocking reveal was dialed back to preserve subtlety. "Awakening" could've explored this facet to decide whether humanity deserves salvation in spite of our inherent hubris. 

After two years of franchise uncertainty, the pandemic rattled the world, but Scott was still keen on making a sequel to "Covenant" and providing answers to pressing questions. "I still think there's a lot of mileage in 'Alien,' but I think you'll have to now re-evolve," Scott told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. While Scott still wanted to passionately explore the "who, why, and for what purpose" of it all, fate had other plans.

Geoffroy Thoorens/Neill Blomkamp

To understand the fate of Scott's unmade "Alien" sequel, we need to go back to January 2015, when director Neill Blomkamp ("District 9") shared stunning concept art for a potential "Alien 5," which was intended to be a direct sequel to James Cameron's "Aliens." After Blomkamp's movie was officially greenlit, 20th Century Fox put it on hold until "Covenant" was out in theaters, as it made sense to let Scott keep the reins of the franchise he created. While Scott worked on "Covenant," the screenplay for his fourth unmade "Alien" movie was written and given that "Alien: Awakening" title.

Doubts about "Alien 5" began to swirl the next year, but Sigourney Weaver (who was set to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley) explained that the project was still on, as Scott had explicitly asked Blomkamp to make that movie after "Covenant" was released (via Gizmodo):

"Well, I think it is. Ridley asked Neill not to make our 'Alien' until after 'Prometheus 2'. He [Scott] wanted his movie to shoot and be released first. But it's an amazing script [...] I'd be really surprised if we didn't do it [...] So, it's just going to take a little bit longer to get out to you, but it'll be worth the wait."

Weaver's statement indicated that the "Alien 5" was delayed but still had creative momentum; she seemed convinced it would happen. Unfortunately, Fox wasn't happy with how "Covenant" performed, so the studio abruptly canceled Blomkamp's project in May 2017. All hopes were then pinned on "Alien: Awakening," the only entry that could help the story loop back to the first "Alien." As luck would have it, this didn't come to pass for a variety of reasons. 

20th Century Fox

March 2019 brought about Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which meant that plans for existing franchises like "Alien" underwent drastic changes. While Scott confirmed that he was still working on a "Covenant" sequel, it was no longer being referred to as "Alien: Awakening." 

On the franchise's 40th anniversary, Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that this new installment would not replicate the original alien lifecycle as "the joke gets boring" while preventing the franchise to chart a new path. He echoed the sentiment a year later, telling Forbes that the "Covenant" sequel was "in process":

"That's in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with 'Prometheus' and 'Covenant' [...] But you know, you're asking fundamental questions like, 'Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?' That's always the fundamental question."

Scott sounded less enthused about the franchise in 2021 onwards, choosing to focus on projects like "House of Gucci" and "Napoleon" until 2024 gave us Fede Álvarez's "Alien: Romulus," in which Scott was involved as producer. The overwhelming success of "Romulus" brought news that Scott was helming another "Alien" film, but details about this mysterious project never came to light. 

By 2025, the franchise had already started to move on with Noah Hawley's "Alien: Earth," which radically reinterprets franchise basics while expanding the scope of "Alien." It's likely that every iteration of "Alien: Awakening" has been abandoned in favor of those other projects (including the still-unrealized "Romulus" sequel), even though Scott's indirect involvement meant that he still cared deeply about these stories.

FX

Scott's post-"Prometheus" vision was ambitious and complex, but these creative impulses remained unfulfilled after "Covenant" set the stage for an epic conclusion. If things had worked out, "Awakening" could've brought the franchise's theological implications full circle. The fact that exhaustion would set in at some point is natural, which might've been the reason why Scott told ScreenRant that he has "done enough" for "Alien" in a 2025 interview:

"A number of years after [the franchise stagnated], I said, 'I'm going to resurrect this,' [and wrote] 'Prometheus' from scratch [...] It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more [...] No one was coming for it, [and] I went once again [and made] 'Alien: Covenant,' and it worked too. Where it's going now, I think I've done enough, and I just hope it goes further."

Scott, however, isn't completely out of the picture. He continues to be a producer on "Alien: Earth," which he had nothing but praise for even before it got renewed for a second season. "It's particularly exciting to learn that younger generations who are embracing 'Alien: Earth' are going back to our film to see where it all began," Scott wrote in a letter addressed to the cast and crew (via Esquire). "Noah has kept the beast alive, and dripping scare the hell out of us for some time longer," Scott went on, expressing support for Hawley's vision.

The Scott-helmed project announced after "Romulus" could still technically come together. But even without it, his attachment to "Alien" is monumental, which will always be worth celebrating. With the franchise making space for new voices and alien mutations, the mythology in "Alien" will keep evolving. While Scott's unmade sequel promised otherworldly revelations, it might be time to give up on that dream, no matter how bleakly beautiful it might've been.