Alien: Covenant turned out to be one of the weirdest movies of the summer: a gothic-tinged Hammer Horror where Michael Fassbender’s David was transformed into a mad scientist scheming away on his hideous creations in a space castle. I really enjoyed it, but I’m well aware that puts me in the minority, with a decent amount of Alien fans left scratching their heads and wondering what the hell was going on.
This is probably what led to the film’s disappointing box office and mixed critical reception, which in turn has led to 20th Century Fox reconsidering their ongoing plans for the series and possibly moving away from what Ridley Scott had envisioned. Given that Covenant ends on one hell of a cliffhanger – David having gone full bad guy with thousands of frozen colonists at his disposal – it’d be super disappointing if we didn’t get to see the conclusion of the Prometheus trilogy, especially given this interview in which Scott teases what would be coming.
“I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.’s. The world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one.”
Fassbender’s David is easily the best part of these movies, an erudite yet unhinged android sociopath desperate to get one over on his dead creators, so a movie the zeroed in on him that concluded the trilogy’s treatise on AI and creation would be a real treat. Even if you’re not into the ongoing Xenomorph creation myth, you can’t deny that both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are both stunning looking films, with the latter’s extra spooky Engineer architecture a definite highlight.