Ridley Scott Talks ‘Alien’ Prequel

I’m never sure how I feel about movie reboots, remakes, prequels, and sequels to long-dead franchises until I go and see the film and see if they’re any good or not. And the same is true of the Alien prequel.

I am glad it’s not going to be a remake of the original, and I’m also glad Ridley Scott is behind the film, but I’m still not convinced.

Since the prequel was announced, most people have assumed the story will show how the aliens came to infest the spaceship in the first place. But it appears that isn’t entirely accurate.

Empire spoke to Ridley Scott at the premiere of Cracks by his daughter Jordan, which formed part of the London Film Festival. He revealed:

“It’s a brand new box of tricks. We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”

“I never thought I’d look forward to a sequel. But a prequel is kind of interesting. I’m looking forward to doing that.”

So, the prequel is set 30 years before the original Alien. And “it’s a brand new box of tricks.” Which all sounds intriguing. The aliens will have to make an appearance at some point in the film or there’ll be a lot of disappointed fans in theaters around the world. But apart from that, maybe the prequel will be focused more on humanity and the human side of the series?

Either way, thinking about it has me more interested by the minute.