Ridley Scott Wants To ‘Help’ Alien After ‘Romulus’ Was Better Than His Films

Alien: Romulus

Murray Close – 20th Century Studios.

Director Ridley Scott is known to speak his mind, and coming off his recent box office miss, The Dog Stars, which underperformed in theaters this past weekend, it seems he’s moving back to one of his old franchises, Alien.

Scott seems unimpressed with the recent direction of the franchise, bringing up the recent Alien: Romulus to French outlet AlloCiné. He was a producer on the film and reportedly gave some amount of pre-release feedback, but here’s what he said:

“Actually, I suddenly went back and got involved,” Scott said. “The one that just came out [Alien: Romulus] was OK. I think it needs some help. So, I’ve gone back in.”

“I’ve already got a footprint for the next Alien. We did Prometheus, and then Alien: Covenant. So, I’m picking up where we left off in Covenant with Michael Fassbender, who now thinks he’s Ozymandias.”

His blunt statement is eyebrow-raising when you look at critical and audience reaction to Alien: Romulus, a movie that scored better than Scott’s last three Alien movies (though of course not the 1979 original). Here are the Rotten Tomatoes scores of Scott’s latest two Alien movies compared to Romulus, which includes Alien: Covenant that he believes warrants a sequel. Plus, box office returns:

• Alien: Romulus (2024) – 80% critic score, 85% audience score, $351 million box office
• Alien Covenant (2017) – 65% critic score, 55% audience score, $241 million box office
• Prometheus (2012) – 73% critic score, 68% audience score , $403 million box office

So, the movie he wants to make a sequel to scored worse than Romulus and made $110 million less. And I think you can imagine that Prometheus was that high because it was the first new Alien movie after the awful Alien vs. Predator movies and the first one directed by Scott since the original Alien.

This is also to say nothing of Alien: Earth, the popular FX series that racked up a stunning 94% among critics with a second season on the way. Scott did not create the show, nor did he direct or write any episodes.

While I don’t think Alien: Romulus is anything overly spectacular, it’s very much better than Scott’s latest films, plus it created a star in newly cast Black Panther, David Jonsson, and landed one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood for its lead, Cailee Spaeny. Supposedly, a sequel may be in development, though it’s unclear if that could be affected by Scott’s newly discussed plans.

I doubt that this is just an idea floating around Scott’s head, as if he wants to make a movie, generally speaking, he just makes it. Even The Dog Stars bombing probably won’t prevent him from going back to Alien if he wants to, but dismissing Romulus when it compares favorably to his own work seems unwarranted.

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