Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’ Saga Is Back: New ‘Alien’ Movie Lands ‘Prisoners’ Writer Aaron Guzikowski
Ridley Scott is not done with the Engineers, and he is apparently not done with David either. The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Thursday, Oct. 23, that 20th Century Studios is developing a brand-new Alien feature with Aaron Guzikowski, the writer of Prisoners and creator of HBO Max's Raised by Wolves , hired to write the script. Scott is producing through Scott Free alongside Michael Pruss, and the project is tied to the two prequels he directed himself: Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). Translation: the storyline most people assumed died after Covenant underperformed is being dug back up.
That is a big deal for a franchise that has spent the last two years splitting into lanes: Fede Álvarez's back-to-basics Romulus on the big screen, Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth on FX and Hulu, and now a third track built on the most divisive films in the series. Below, we break down what's confirmed, who Guzikowski is, the box office history that explains why this is surprising, what it means for the Romulus sequel, and the questions nobody can answer yet.
Watch: Where Scott's Prequel Story Left Off
There's no footage from the new project; it's in early development, with no director. So here's the official Alien: Covenant trailer, the chapter this film is reportedly picking up from.
The Details: What's Actually Confirmed
The confirmed list is short, and it's worth being precise about it, because the internet has already started filling in the blanks.
- Studio: 20th Century Studios, with executive J.R. Young overseeing the project, per TheWrap.
- Writer: Aaron Guzikowski is writing the screenplay.
- Producers: Ridley Scott and Michael Pruss through Scott Free.
- Director: None attached. Nothing in the reporting says Scott will direct.
- Story: Plot details are under wraps, but THR reports it connects to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
- Not a Romulus sequel: Nerdist, iHorror and JoBlo all report this is a separate film from the Romulus follow-up, which remains in development on its own track.
- Michael Fassbender: Not currently attached, per Nerdist. He played the androids David and Walter in Scott's last two Alien films.
- Release date, cast, rating, budget: None announced.
So this is a writer hire, not a green light. But in the Alien world, where projects have been announced and buried for decades, a studio paying a proven writer to crack a prequel continuation is still a real signal.
Photo: Ridley Scott, Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender promoting Prometheus , by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license).
Who's Behind It
Aaron Guzikowski, the writer
Guzikowski's calling card is Prisoners , the bleak 2013 abduction thriller Denis Villeneuve directed for Warner Bros. It cost $46 million and grossed about $113.3 million worldwide, per The Numbers, and it's still the gold standard for a mainstream adult thriller that refuses to let anyone off the hook. That matters here: the best Alien films are about dread and moral rot, not just chest-bursters.
The more relevant credit is Raised by Wolves. Guzikowski created the HBO Max series, with Scott as an executive producer who directed its first two episodes. The show followed two androids raising human children on a hostile planet, and it was obsessed with the same questions as Prometheus : who made us, what do creators owe their creations, and what happens when a synthetic being decides it knows better. HBO Max canceled it in June 2022 after two seasons, with the season 2 finale airing that March, per TVLine. Fans are still sore about it. In other words, Guzikowski has already spent two seasons writing a Ridley Scott android-and-God story. This is the closest thing to a known quantity the studio could have hired.
Ridley Scott, the architect
Scott directed the 1979 original, which still sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, and then returned 33 years later with Prometheus and five years after that with Covenant. He turns 89 next month and hasn't slowed down; his latest, the post-apocalyptic drama The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, opened Aug. 28 and has struggled, at roughly $39.3 million worldwide on a reported $110 million budget, per The Numbers.
He has also been telegraphing this move. In an interview with French outlet AlloCiné, reported by Dread Central in August, Scott called Romulus merely okay, said he was writing on the next chapter himself, and said "I've already got a footprint for the next Alien." He described a story continuing from Covenant with Fassbender's David. Thursday's news looks like the studio formalizing that footprint with a writer.
The Backstory: How the Prequels Got Shelved
Scott's prequel saga was always meant to be longer than two films. Prometheus introduced the Engineers, the pale giants who seeded life on Earth, and ended with Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw and David's severed head flying off to find their home world. Covenant revealed that David got there first, wiped them out, and began designing the xenomorph himself. It closed with David aboard a colony ship carrying 2,000 sleeping colonists and a stash of embryos. That cliffhanger has sat unresolved for more than nine years.
Here's the rough timeline since:
- May 2017: Covenant opens domestically on May 19 and stalls well below Prometheus.
- 2019: Disney completes its purchase of Fox, and Scott's planned follow-ups go quiet.
- March 2022: THR reports Fede Álvarez will direct a standalone Alien film unconnected to the prequels. That becomes Romulus.
- Aug. 16, 2024: Alien: Romulus opens to $42 million domestically.
- August 2025: Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth premieres on FX and Hulu and is later renewed.
- Aug. 1, 2026: After reports that the Romulus sequel was shelved, 20th Century president Steve Asbell replies on social media with a one-word denial: "Nope."
- September 2026: Alien: Earth season 2 is filming at Pinewood Studios in London, adding Peter Dinklage, Tracey Ullman, Sam Spruell and Jerome Flynn, per Dread Central.
- Oct. 23, 2026: Guzikowski is hired for the new prequel-connected film.
By the Numbers
The box office explains exactly why this news is surprising. All figures are from The Numbers; scores are Rotten Tomatoes critics' scores.
- Prometheus (2012): $125 million budget, $126.5 million domestic, $402.4 million worldwide. 73% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Alien: Covenant (2017): $97 million budget, $74.3 million domestic, $242.4 million worldwide. 65% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Alien: Romulus (2024): $80 million budget, $105.3 million domestic, $350.9 million worldwide. Opened to an 83% critics' score.
Covenant lost about 40% of Prometheus 's worldwide gross and dropped further with critics. Romulus then earned almost $110 million more than Covenant on a budget $17 million smaller, with better reviews. On paper, the lesson Disney learned was: stop philosophizing, start hunting. Hiring someone to revive the philosophizing branch is the opposite of what the spreadsheet suggests, which tells you how much pull Scott still has.
Analysis: Disney Is Running Alien Like a Multiverse Now
The most interesting part of this story isn't the prequels. It's the strategy. 20th Century now has at least three Alien lanes in motion at once: Hawley's series on TV, a Romulus sequel that Álvarez co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues but won't direct, and now a Scott-produced continuation of the Engineer saga. Add the persistent reports that Brian Duffield is writing something for the studio too, and you have a franchise being developed the way Lucasfilm handles Star Wars : lots of irons in the fire, see which ones get hot.
There's logic to it. The Alien timeline is huge and the films have always worked as near-standalones; Aliens , Alien 3 and Resurrection barely feel like the same series. The risk is the same one Star Wars ran into: when every project is an option, nothing is a priority, and fans start reading each announcement as a threat to the one they actually want. You can already see that in the reaction. A lot of people who loved Romulus immediately asked whether this means their sequel is dead, and the reporting so far says no.
Compare it to the franchises that have handled multiple tracks well. The Conjuring universe juggled mainline films and spinoffs for a decade because one producer, James Wan, kept them coherent. Scott could play that role here, since he's attached to nearly everything Alien as a producer. The counter-example is the Predator series, which spent years lurching between reboots until Prey found a lane by going small. The prequel films have never been small.
Our read: hiring Guzikowski is the smartest version of this idea. The biggest knock on Covenant was that it tried to be two movies at once, a David-as-mad-creator chamber piece and a crew-gets-picked-off creature feature, and neither got enough room. Raised by Wolves proved Guzikowski can sustain the creepy-android theology for hours without apologizing for it. If 20th Century lets this be a strange, grown-up sci-fi horror film at a sensible budget, instead of a $100 million-plus attempt to please everyone, it could finally finish the story on its own terms.
What's at stake is whether the franchise can hold two tones at once. Romulus showed there's a big audience for lean, scary Alien. This project is a bet that there's still an audience for weird, operatic Alien. Both can be true, but only if the studio stops treating them as competitors.
What We Still Don't Know
- Will Scott direct? He's only listed as producer, and at nearly 89 he's choosing projects carefully.
- Does Fassbender come back? Hard to imagine David's story without him, but he isn't attached.
- Theatrical or streaming? No word yet. Romulus was first developed with Hulu in mind before going theatrical.
- What happens to the Romulus sequel? It still has a script and no director or date. Watch for a director hire as the real sign of life.
- Where's Elizabeth Shaw? Covenant killed her off-screen. Whether the new film revisits that is pure speculation for now.
Next on the calendar: Alien: Earth season 2 is still shooting in London with no premiere date, so expect FX news before anything else.
Bottom Line
This is early, but it's real: a proven writer, Scott's company and the studio's backing, all pointed at the cliffhanger Covenant left behind in 2017. Whether you think David is the franchise's most fascinating creation or the reason it lost its way, you're going to get another chance to argue about him. So, be honest: do you want the Engineer saga finished, or would you rather 20th Century put every resource into Romulus 2 ? Tell us in the comments.
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Header photo: Ridley Scott by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons ( author and license), cropped with text added.
Sources: TheWrap(citing The Hollywood Reporter), Nerdist, iHorror, JoBlo, Dread Central (Scott on AlloCiné), Dread Central (Alien: Earth season 2), The Playlist, TVLine, Andrew Liptak (2022 Álvarez report), The Numbers ( Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus, Prisoners, The Dog Stars), Sportskeeda and Dexerto(Rotten Tomatoes scores).
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