While speaking with The Playlist, Alien: Covenant actress Katherine Waterston reaffirmed a desire to reprise the role of Daniels for another Alien prequel film, if her character is still alive.
PLAYLIST: Would you make another Alien movie?
WATERSTON: “In a heartbeat. I loved working with Ridley and I loved playing that part. I hope we can! I would love it! I hope she’s still alive!”
Katherine isn’t speaking out of school questioning if Daniels is still alive as they killed Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw off-screen when she was supposed to return in a bigger role originally in earlier incarnations of Alien: Covenant.
However, Ridley Scott spoke with Forbes recently where he suggested that if he makes another Alien film it might deviate from the last two installments and might not even connect to them.
SCOTT: “That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. 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.”
ALIEN: COVENANT – Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.
Raised By Wolves is officially getting a second season!
WarnerMedia and HBO Max has announced they have renewed the Ridley Scott produced science fiction series for a second season and has been revealed as the “top-performing” original programming on the platform, suggesting that it’s the most popular original they have currently on the streaming service.
Below is the announcement from the official press release.
After a striking debut on the streamer as the #1 performing Max original since the platform’s launch, HBO Max has ordered a second season of Raised by Wolves, a serialized sci-fi series from master storyteller and filmmaker Ridley Scott (The Martian, Gladiator, Alien), which has immersed fans into the rich, intricate world of Kepler 22-b. The series, which debuted with three episodes on Sept. 3, has continued to be a strong performer in its second week on the platform, growing its audience by nearly 50% week over week.
Raised by Wolves centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.
This is excellent news for fans like myself who had been curious if the show would get more than a single season. It’s worth noting that the cast are committed to multiple seasons of the show beyond Season 2, so there is the good chance we could get up to Season 4-5 given how the actor’s contracts are written.
Kind of a stroke of luck for HBO Max given that the series was originally going air on TNT.
We’ve all been extremely interested in what direction the Alien franchise could be getting in the wake of the Disney merger with 21st Century Studios, as it had been confirmed by Ridley Scott himself that he was speaking with studio executives about making a third movie that had once been referred to by the title Alien: Awakening.
While promoting his upcoming science fiction series Raised By Wolves, Ridley Scott has confirmed to Forbes that there is still active development on a third untitled Alien film and potentially gives insight on a new direction for the film, rather than continuing his string of prequels trying to make a new path via Michael Fassbender’s David.
Scott doesn’t come out and say this third movie will be a new take, he alludes that it might not be similar or connected to Prometheus and Covenant.
Here is that quick blurb from his interview with Forbes.
SCOTT: “That’s in process. We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. 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.”
Some of the ideas for Alien: Awakening were to fill gaps between the events of the last two films or directly seeing David getting his hands on Covenant’s colony of human settlers for future xenomorph experiments leading into the original Alien from 1979 explaining how the derelict ship got on LV-426. However, a lot of fans are not really in favor of Scott misidentifying that element of the original movie.
Another idea for the film was that surviving Engineers from other planets seeking out David to avenge his mass murder on Paradise.
I was a massive fan of all the Engineer and bio-weapon stuff from Prometheus but when Alien: Covenant abandoned all that to become a generic sci-fi slasher it sort of left a bad taste in my mouth. Such wasted potential after Scott spent all that time focusing on the Engineers being such important figures in the Alien universe/mythology only to have David commit genocide against them.
There had been a huge fan response to Neill Blomkamp’s purposed Alien 5 and the return of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, the normally coy actress had already been convinced by a pitch from Neill and was on board even before the studio agreed to allow him to develop it formally.
Alien 5 was expected to negate the events of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, making it a direct sequel to James Cameron’s beloved Aliens with characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop expected to make a return. Cameron seemingly was a fan of the film’s script calling it “gangbusters” during the Aliens 30th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016.
Jim’s comments contradicted statements made by Ridley that a script didn’t exist.
The idea had been that while Ripley would have been the main hero of the film, Newt (most likely recast with a new actress) would have taken over the mantle in a hypothetical Alien 6 movie as previously outlined by Neill Blomkamp when he was explaining his vision for his film and how it could revitalize the franchise.
However, there seemed to be a bit of a power struggle behind the scenes between Ridley Scott’s desire to get Alien: Covenant made and fandom’s overwhelming support to see Sigourney return to the Alien franchise with Blomkamp’s film. The two projects may have been in direct competition and Ridley was in a position of power as a producer on Alien 5 to have 20th Century greenlight his sequel instead.
Scott was so hellbent on getting Alien: Covenant made he handed the reigns of Blade Runner 2049 over to Denis Villeneuve and stepped down as that project’s director.
Blomkamp has since moved on to other projects and doesn’t seem very keen on the idea of returning to Alien 5 anytime soon.
This year a new treatment for Alien 5 was making news after franchise screenwriter Walter Hill revealed that he and his partner David Giler tackled a script dated March 2020 that may or may not feed into Blomkamp’s idea of removing Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection from franchise canon, teasing those events may have been a dream.
Scott himself is a busy bee as he has to finish filming his period thriller The Last Duel and is planning on shooting his drama Gucci sometime in the next year or so. At one point, Ridley was attached to direct a Merlin prequel film for Disney but for whatever reason pivoted to other projects instead.
Raised By Wolves debuts today on HBO Max.
RAISED BY WOLVES – The ambitious new sci-fi series centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.
Director Ridley Scott still has to finish production on his period drama The Last Duel, but there is already exciting casting news about his Gucci drama at MGM Studios starring singer Lady Gaga.
Gaga will play Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, who was tried and convicted of orchestrating her ex-husband’s assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years before being let out of jail in 2016.
Deadline reports that Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney are in-talks for various roles. An excellent group of actors if they can convince them to all sign-on.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino recently worked together on Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Robert is set to reunite with Martin alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the thriller Killers of The Flower Moon.
Driver recently took over the Ben Affleck role in The Last Duel after Ben had scheduling issues.
The script was written by Roberto Bentivegna.
When production will begin on Gucci is a little unclear given that Scott has to complete The Last Duel and other actors will be busy with other projects.
We’ve been waiting to hear some update concerning the Alien franchise and while there has been some teases from Ridley Scott that his third prequel Alien: Awakening is still in development phases. A fifth Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley might be still in the cards despite the Neill Blomkamp incarnation of the project being placed on ice.
While speaking with Empire, Weaver revealed that she received a 50-page Alien 5 treatment 18 months ago from franchise producer and screenwriter Walter Hill. Hill has been part of the franchise since the original 1979 film and worked on scripts (including rewrites and treatments) for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.
She doesn’t sound as enthusiastic about Ripley’s return it as she was when Blomkamp was attached for Alien 5 as it sounds like Ridley Scott could be calling the shots.
WEAVER: “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”
I think Alien 5 is still the best way to go. Neill Blomkamp wanted to make a film that directly connected to Aliens with the return of characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop after being killed-off in Alien 3, which was co-written by Walter Hill.
There is a good chance that Hill’s version might have been a continuation from Alien: Resurrection following a clone version of Ripley. Something that had been the original intention of Alien 5 when Ridley Scott and James Cameron teamed-up for their own incarnation before the studio passed to make Alien vs Predator instead.
At one point, James Cameron was able to read Neill’s script and called it “gangbusters” during an Aliens Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2016.
Ridley Scott has seemingly been the main reason Alien 5 hasn’t come together as he pulled his weight at Fox to have Alien: Covenant made instead of Blomkamp’s film, essentially killing it in the process.
You might be unaware but a full year ago it was reported by Variety that 20th Century Studios was still developing a third Alien prequel film (previously referred to Alien: Awakening) from director Ridley Scott attached and script being written.
This was reinforced by Scott himself when speaking The Hollywood Reporter that there were discussions for future installments.
Ruminating on the immediate future of the Alien franchise, now that Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, Scott confirms that there are discussions for future installments, but warns that if the basic premise of “the beast” does not evolve like the Xenomorph itself, the “joke” gets old.
The Los Angeles Times was able to speak with Ridley recently and he gave some more hope to fans that are waiting for some official announcement about the project moving forward.
SCOTT: “I still think there’s a lot of mileage in ‘Alien,’ but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve. What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”
We don’t know what the main details of Alien: Awakening could be other than David now having access to the Covenant colonists for his experiments. However, an excerpt from Empire Magazine claimed that the third film from screenwriter John Logan (Alien: Covenant) may see David face surviving Engineers, alluding to how the derelict ship got on LV-426 and led to the events of the original Alien.
Lead actor Michael Fassbender is still keen to return for more films after speaking with Italian outlet Bad Taste last year while promoting Dark Phoenix.
FASSBENDER: “I’d love to. I just absolutely love working with Ridley and it was a real moment for me. When I stepped onto the set of Prometheus and got to work with him, and yeah I love the character. It’s a lot of fun, so yeah.”
We’ll have to wait for 20th Century Studios to make an official announcement, but it’s worth mentioning that the new President of Production, Steve Asbell, has a facehugger on his official Twitter avatar image.
THE RONIN 