Ridley Scott blames the diminishing returns of AC on the "Alien" itself

He also had a lot on his plate and had to prioritize. He went with the studio's guidance with using the Alien more. It was a gamble that didn't seem to translate into expected profits. I enjoyed it and supported it anyway. Hopefully there will be a good script/story and Scott will be allowed to do what he wants. It is sounding like his heart may not be in it anymore.

dk Exactly. He is not passionate about it and he is so stubborn!

He was passionate about the universe expanding I think. That's why Prometheus was so different, but good. APparently he didn't want to bring the Alien back in until later, but stuck it back in because that's the alien. The Alien is cooked, as he said before. You can't just keep making the same monster attack a group of people one by one in EVERY single sequel/prequel. If you can't expand on that and add more to it, why keep making them. They become a joke like Freddy and Jason movies.

drucea Then they just need to drop the Alien name. That is misleading advertising. However, I think the monster is alive and kicking for whoever wants to revamp it, expand on its origins and try different settings and situations.

drucea  They become a joke like Freddy and Jason movies.

Bingo! I said exactly that in the past.

Dracula, Frankenstein and many other had countless spoof versions, Abbott & Costello, Mel Brooks, etc. And after all that you can still get Francis Coppola's "Dracula". It is a director's responsibility and it is his choice to make it scary or not.

Spoof versions are one thing. Continuing the series in a serious manner is another. I think the Alien name should be kept. Honestly, if something came out without acknowledging "Alien" in the title, I would probably pass it by.

dk Would you go to see a movie called "Alien" with no aliens in it?

 joylitt No way, and that is one of the reasons I hate on Prometheus. Wasn't in the name but we all knew what it was supposed to be.

Don't care if I ever see another Xenomorph again....A L I E N was perfect, that was all I ever wanted to see of that creature...leave the rest to my imagination...For Alien2 I would have moved on to something really terrifying.

Aliens was just a bunch of dudes(xenos) standing around.....scared of fire.

I see Ridley as trying to retrofit a delivery system around a well known concept. I think he knows exactly what he is up against, and is completely right in saying that something new needs to be introduced. I think this is why Ridley is going down the rogue AI route and setting things up for a third movie that can create a story that does not have the predictability of Prometheus or AC. Ridley has left a massive trail of mysteries and unanswered question. I believe this is to set the stage, or possibly more accurately, reset the stage so as to create an almost blank canvass. Of course there will be elements that we have come to expect within the franchise, but for the most part we know we can be sure that the only surviving character that can serve as a reference point is David.

Ridley wanted to produce a trilogy from the start. The last thing he is going to do is reveal, or even hint at the end game at the start of a project, that would be like telling someone to go and watch The Usual Suspects because Kevin Spacey is Keyser Soze. Ridley has his head screwed on, which is what I take from him saying that he is ahead of the curve. I don’t think Ridley has lost his passion. I think he is just very aware that there are certain things you need to have in place in order to make something work, and if in the process that means pissing people off, then that is what will happen, and has been happening.

Batchpool

We will reveal nothing because he makes it up as he goes, so the reveal will must probably be weak. And if you mention the Usual Suspects, why do you people even consider the Souze is just some urban legend?

And for the diminishing returns, is he really that disconnected? You make one of the most gory and mean spirited film and you expect do have a big success at your hands? You don't care about human characters at all? You make the same choices as 3? Have a pretty idiotic script which at please seems like an Alien spoof? I for one don't give 2 cents about the Xenomorph, if it was not for Prometheus I would have not even bother to watch it. So maybe Sir Scott have guts and do a movie you would like to make. Why do you think a "movie" like The Room has fans?  

Well, I love Ridley's movies and I protect P&AC&RS from silly haters, but - I despise to Scott for this "cooked" verbiage. He destroyed himself.

I think the "action" aspect of Alien is cooked, but its legacy won't die. Alien Isolation is a great example. 

Well, the xenomorph is cooked if one keep coming to the cycle egg/facehugger/chestbuster/basic xenomorph. This has been done to death and is boring. I would be more interested in seing how Xenomorph evolve after a very long time. Do they become sentient ? Do they evolve in something much more powerful and dangerous ? Can a hive wipe out all life on a world ?

Also,I  would have prefered that Alien Covenant focused on the study of Engineer culture and technology by David ,or another party, and the exploration of the relation between Engineers and Xenomorph or morph like creatures.

Moreover Ridley could have developped some aspects of the Xenomorph removed from ALIEN such as eggmorphing or the ALIEN become sentient.

Imagine an ancient Xenomorph,thousands of years old, which is a god like figure for the humanoids of the planet 4 and awakened by David attack. How smart would such a being be ? How powerful ?

Bit busy now.... so this reply from other thread, will fit well with these other threads..

I think RS had a Original Vision, that would have covered the Xenomorph and then allowed us to move on past this and explore the Engineers, but FOX felt the Engineers was more interesting and the Xeno had been done to death and something New was needed.

Prometheus appeared to be setting us up to move away from the Xenomorph and Alien... but again it appeared once again FOX Panicked and Felt in Hindsight they should have covered the Xenomorph and so they changed the plans again.

Now that this never went down well....( Alien Covenant)

It appears RS seems to be suggesting in Hindsight indeed the Xenomorph is cooked, and something Fresh Needs doing, yet the Fans expected these NEW Alien Prequels to Lead to ALIEN.

They have Written themselves into another more Tighter Corner now..

The Problem was not the Xenomorph, it was how it was handled, the movie sadly tried to cover a lot of bases, tried to please Prometheus fans, but had desecrated a lot of it... it tried to please Alien Fans but some parts desecrated that... and it simply never had the Action or Queens and Ripleys to please the Fanboys.

I would think the sticking Problems for AC are..

*for some section of Fans, it did not cover the Engineers enough, and the Engineers shown failed to live up to the expectations of those beings we saw in Prometheus.

*some fans hoped for some of Shaws Questions to be Answered.

*Alien Fans, the New Design (Chest Burster) and Gestation/Growth Rate are a conflict to the Alien Lore...

*The Basis now that David Created the Xenomorph and the story is about him, is something that has split fans more so than the Space Jockey being Giant Humanoids (not so Giant)

*The movie Bigged it up to be a Horror and many fans expected a Alien like Vibe to it, but got rushed ALIEN like Scene near the end, and disappointing changes to Lore.

*The ALIENS Fans was expecting a more Ripley Character and Action, and Sadly the Neomorph attack Scenes and Daniels Shooting the Xenomorph failed to give anything near Aliens Action.

I dont think they can now just Drop the Xenomorph, and concentrate on David... i think this is not the case at all, they wont give us a ALIEN AWAKENING and not have any Xenomorph connections.. they cant have the ALIEN Prefix without it as Fans associate the Name with the Xenomorph and Ripley and not Engineers and David

But i dont think it does not have to be all about the Xenomorph.

STAR WARS: The Force Awakens was about the Force, and leading to a Awakening in the Force and so a Set up for a Sequel (The Last Jedi) that would cover the Jedi and Force more.

The Force Awakens, thus did not have as much about the Force or Jedis as the Phantom Menace...  And i think ALIEN AWAKENING will deal with the Xenomorph like SW: Force Awakens did with the Jedi/Force.

Leading up to another movie that will show us the Classic Xenomorph Eggs and Derelict Event...

Alien Awakening as far as AI/David and the Company Agenda will be more like the Rebuilding of the EMPIRE (Weyland) into the NEW ORDER (Weyland-Yutani) and reveal AI is running the Show, much like SNOKE is in the Star Wards new sequels.

The FORCE could be our Xenomorph Weapon and the Last Jedi could well be the Hiearchy of those Engineers, who will be out to stop who ever destroyed Paradise/Planet 4

But indeed...

If they explore the Xeno too much in 2-3 movies and then do some Alien/Aliens Sequels about the Xenomorphs... then Sadly they will become COOKED and a Joke like the Jason Movies had been and Freddy.

They tried to Reboot those... take a more serious take.. but that never worked..

And  think therefore even RE-BOOTING the Alien Franchise will not work.

They need to be careful over next 1-2 movies with handling the Xenomorph...

They then need to bridge out and explore alternatives to the Xenomorph in other Prequels... such as the Deacon or Fresco or other similar Neomorph like ideas..

i also think if they make a ALIEN 5 they would be better off as above giving us something Fresh.

he can keep the xeno in the movies but not be the centre piece as I do think its time to see more of the universe connected to the xeno. fans r being stubborn aswell here. a large portion just want a film as scary as the original about a monster hunting people but look at the world Prometheus opened up within the alien universe. he gave us these mighty looking engineers who r so far ahead of us that not only does the xeno knock us down the natural ladder in terms of top species but the engineers do aswell. some r wanting something fresh and yet they slammed Prometheus. seriously?? it was the most original film in the franchise since alien. RS could find a medium somewhere but It seems to me theres no deliberate path now after Prometheus got slammed. as he said himself 'they want aliens ill give them fkn aliens' yet when he does hes still getting slammed. I wouldn't be surprised if he does one more then washed his hands of the franchise, I would. Prometheus had issues but I take that film for what it is. a jump off, first in a trilogy movie to raise the questions for future instalments to answer yet hes turned away from what he wanted and AC doesn't seem like an alien movie or a Prometheus sequel to me.AC, imo, was just awful and I believe its because RS isn't sure where to go now. he had a path and ditched it to please the masses.

Blaming it on the beast? On the alien?  That the movie is titled after???  He's either lost his mind or he was lucky in the initial installment of this series and simply doesn't have the capacity to recreate that magic.  I find it humorous that the beast is claimed as being cooked, and we still don't know how it came to be, created by whom and why?  That is the movie that needs made.  Get rid of the AI.  The malfunctioning AI is more rediculous than the beast being real.   I mean Daniels witnessed rogue AI and didn't tell Muther to prohibit entry of either AI...umm. I am sure they probably have a backup to Walter in a locker somewhere?  Mission critical redundancy?  Right?  LOL.

It's called Alien not Xenomorph....If they called it Xenomorph:Covenant...or Xeno:Awakening...then yeah i can see the problem.

Going down the Freddy Krueger Jason Voorhees retread, recycle is sad.

Doomed to forever have the same old monster.

Was Alien:Resurrection about the Xeno's or the NEWBORN? Prolly should have called it Alien:Newborn.