Ridley Scott's Return, Romulus 2, & More Ripley: Alien's Movie Future Is More Promising & Complicated Than Ever

Published Aug 26, 2026, 5:50 PM EDT Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release. He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Alien movie franchise is full of more exciting developments than ever before, but it raises questions about the vision for the Disney-owned sci-fi series. Over the years, this IP has tackled everything from horror to action to sci-fi to varying degrees of success. But the iconic qualities of the franchise since 1989 left Disney with an easy decision to make more Alien projects after acquiring the rights in 2019's 20th Century deal. In the seven years since then, the franchise has two new projects to show for Disney's interest. The movie side of the studio brought Fede Álvarez aboard to make a fresh film, Alien: Romulus, in 2024 that focused on entirely new characters, brought back horror elements, and took place between Ridley Scott's original and James Cameron's sequel. Disney also brought xenomorphs to the small screen for the first time with Hulu's Alien: Earth in 2025 for another standalone story set before the original movies but not precisely canon to them. Alien: Romulus proved to be so successful that Disney put a sequel into development, while Alien: Earth was renewed for season 2 after critical acclaim and strong viewership. Those two projects provided a glimpse into the fresh era the studio was moving the franchise into. They are far from the only ones we know Disney has been discussing over the years, and new ideas keep coming. Year 2120 · Prodigy City How Well Do You Know Alien: Earth? “You have my sympathies.” 👽XenomorphThe perfect organism 🧬HybridsWake up, Wendy 🏢Weyland-YutaniBuilding better worlds 🧠ProdigyBoy's toy box 🚀MaginotCargo: five specimens OPEN THE AIRLOCK → 01 Alien: Earth is the first live-action TV series ever set in the Alien universe. Ridley Scott executive-produces, but the creator and showrunner is a two-time Emmy winner better known for FX's Fargo anthology and the mind-bending Marvel series Legion. Name him. ATaylor Sheridan BNoah Hawley CDan Trachtenberg DJon Spaihts ✓ Correct! Noah Hawley — the Fargo and Legion showrunner who spent years developing the project with Ridley Scott and FX before the pilot finally shot in Thailand in 2023. Hawley wrote, directed and produced the opening episodes, and framed the series as a “prequel-sidequel” to Alien, set two years before the Nostromo incident rather than centuries later in the Prometheus timeline. ✗ Wrong personnel file. The answer is Noah Hawley. Dan Trachtenberg directed Prey and is attached to Predator: Badlands, not Alien. Jon Spaihts co-wrote Prometheus with Ridley Scott but isn't involved in the TV show. Taylor Sheridan runs Yellowstone and its spin-offs. Hawley's Fargo sensibility — long silences, icy dread, corporate black comedy — is all over Alien: Earth. NEXT → 02 The series premiered on August 12, 2025. In the U.S. it aired on FX with next-day streaming on one of its corporate siblings, and rolled out internationally through Disney+ as a Star-branded show. What's the U.S. streaming home? AMax BHulu CApple TV+ DParamount+ ✓ Correct! Hulu. FX aired the linear broadcast on August 12, 2025, and Hulu carried next-day streaming under the “FX on Hulu” label — the same pipeline as Fargo, The Bear and Shogun. Internationally it lived on Disney+ under the Star banner. Apple, Max and Paramount all have their own sci-fi tentpoles, but Alien is a 20th Century / FX property, so it sits inside the Disney ecosystem. ✗ Wrong network. The answer is Hulu. The show premiered on FX on August 12, 2025, with next-day streaming on Hulu, because the Alien IP belongs to 20th Century (now part of Disney). Max would be a WBD show, Apple TV+ is the home of Silo and Foundation, Paramount+ has Strange New Worlds. Alien is an FX / Hulu / Disney+ title top to bottom. NEXT → 03 Hawley deliberately placed the show so close to Ridley Scott's 1979 original that characters, fonts and corporate logos match. Ripley's Nostromo doesn't reach LV-426 until 2122. When does Alien: Earth take place? A2093, the year of Prometheus B2120, two years before Alien C2179, the year of Aliens D2218, a century later ✓ Correct! 2120 — exactly two years before the Nostromo signal is picked up in the original Alien. Hawley built the whole production design around that proximity: the CRT monitors, amber-on-black typography and tape-spool tech of the 1979 film are all in place, because we're only a couple of years out. Prometheus (2093) is decades earlier; Aliens (2179) and Resurrection (2381) are long after. ✗ Wrong stardate. The answer is 2120, two years before the Nostromo picks up the distress signal in Alien (2122). Prometheus is 2093. Aliens is 2179. Resurrection is 2381. Hawley chose 2120 specifically so the show could share the 1979 film's chunky analog production design — tape machines, CRTs, amber-on-black terminals — and feel like a piece of the same world. NEXT → 04 At the heart of the show is the first successful “hybrid” — a dying child whose consciousness is transferred into a synthetic adult body. She's given a Peter Pan-themed codename, and the actress playing her is the daughter of a Homeland and Billions star. Who is she? ASydney Chandler as Wendy BMaika Monroe as Tinker COdessa Young as Wendy DSadie Sink as Darling ✓ Correct! Sydney Chandler plays Wendy — the first hybrid whose human consciousness is successfully uploaded into a synthetic body by Prodigy Corporation. Chandler is the daughter of Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Bloodline). Wendy's cohort of hybrids are all named after characters from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan — the “Lost Boys” — echoing Boy Kavalier's fixation on never growing up. ✗ Wrong character file. The answer is Sydney Chandler as Wendy. She's the daughter of actor Kyle Chandler, and Wendy's name comes from the Peter Pan motif Hawley uses across the whole hybrid cohort (the “Lost Boys”). Odessa Young, Maika Monroe and Sadie Sink are excellent young actresses, but the Wendy role belongs to Sydney Chandler, who carries most of the show's POV scenes. NEXT → 05 Every Alien story needs a synthetic. The show's android-mentor-to-the-hybrids is named Kirsh — part Bishop, part Ash, part quietly menacing. Which long-limbed Hawley collaborator (Fargo season 4, Justified) plays him? AMichael Fassbender BWalton Goggins CTimothy Olyphant DMatthew Rhys ✓ Correct! Timothy Olyphant. He'd already worked with Hawley on Fargo (season 4, as U.S. Marshal Dick “Deafy” Wickware) and brings the same dry, unnerving calm to Kirsh. Fassbender's David / Walter synthetics belong to the Prometheus / Covenant era. Walton Goggins and Matthew Rhys are both in the same orbit but not in Alien: Earth. Olyphant alone is the synthetic watching the Lost Boys. ✗ Wrong operative. The answer is Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh. He'd worked with Hawley on Fargo season 4. Michael Fassbender played the synthetics David and Walter in the Prometheus-era films, not the TV show. Walton Goggins is in The White Lotus. Matthew Rhys is a Hawley veteran too (Perry Mason) but isn't the synthetic here. Olyphant's Kirsh is the Ash/Bishop analogue. NEXT → 06 The Earth of 2120 is carved up between five mega-corporations — Weyland-Yutani, Prodigy, Lynch, Threshold and Dynamic. The Prodigy Corp., which owns the hybrid program and effectively runs the city where the show is set, is ruled by a baby-faced trillionaire wunderkind called... APeter Weyland BBoy Kavalier CCarter Burke DMichael Bishop ✓ Correct! Boy Kavalier — played by British newcomer Samuel Blenkin, whose Black Mirror episode “Loch Henry” put him on Hawley's radar. Boy is a Peter-Pan-obsessed twenty-something trillionaire who funds the hybrid program as a way to “save” terminally ill children (and, not incidentally, invent an obedient synthetic super-soldier). Peter Weyland is the Prometheus founder of Weyland-Yutani, and Burke / Bishop are from Aliens. ✗ Wrong corner office. The answer is Boy Kavalier, played by Samuel Blenkin. Peter Weyland is the founder of Weyland Corp in Prometheus. Carter Burke is Paul Reiser's corporate villain in Aliens. Michael Bishop is the Weyland-Yutani exec in Alien 3 who shares a face with Bishop the synthetic. Boy Kavalier is Hawley's original creation — a techno-Peter-Pan running Prodigy Corporation and the hybrid experiment. NEXT → 07 The entire plot kicks off when a Weyland-Yutani deep-space research ship, returning to Earth with five live xenobiological specimens in its cargo hold, crash-lands in Prodigy City. What's the name of that ship? AUSCSS Nostromo BUSS Sulaco CUSCSS Maginot DUSCSS Prometheus ✓ Correct! The USCSS Maginot — a Weyland-Yutani research vessel named after the doomed French defensive line of WWII, a tip-of-the-hat to the idea of a barrier that fails the moment it's actually tested. The Maginot comes down in Prodigy-controlled territory with five different alien specimens in its hold, which gives Hawley a pretext to introduce four new creatures alongside the familiar Xenomorph. ✗ Wrong transponder. The answer is the USCSS Maginot. The Nostromo is Ripley's commercial towing vessel in Alien (1979) — it never made it home. The Sulaco is the Colonial Marine ship in Aliens. The Prometheus is the Weyland research ship in Prometheus (2012). The Maginot is Hawley's addition — and the name telegraphs that its defenses against what's in the cargo hold absolutely do not hold. NEXT → 08 Wendy and her fellow hybrids — Slightly, Tootles, Curly, Nibs, Smee — are all codenamed after characters from the same children's story. Boy Kavalier reads the book aloud to them like a bedtime ritual, feeding a theme of arrested development that runs the entire season. What's the book? AThe Hobbit BAlice in Wonderland CPeter Pan DThe Wind in the Willows ✓ Correct! Peter Pan. The hybrids are the “Lost Boys,” Wendy is their Wendy, and the whole conceit — children who never grow up, trapped in adult synthetic bodies — comes straight from J.M. Barrie. Hawley has said in interviews that the Peter Pan overlay is what attracted him to doing Alien on Earth: the horror of corporations grafting eternal childhood onto people who should have been allowed to die. ✗ Wrong bedtime story. The answer is Peter Pan. The whole hybrid cohort — Wendy, Slightly, Tootles, Curly, Nibs, Smee — takes names from J.M. Barrie's Neverland. Boy Kavalier himself is a Peter figure, a trillionaire who refuses to grow up. Hawley has leaned hard on the metaphor: children kept frozen in synthetic adult bodies by a corporation that promises them they'll never have to die. REVEAL MY SCORE → Prodigy Assessment Complete Your Clearance Level 👽 / 8 Lost Boy — or still trapped in cryosleep? ⤴ RESTART CYCLE A Ridley Scott return movie is now in development, with the director confirming his intent to complete the David trilogy. It adds to an exciting lineup of upcoming Alien movies that give the franchise plenty of promise in terms of where it can go in the years ahead. However, it suggests a growing lack of direction within Disney about what to do with the iconic sci-fi series next. Ridley Scott's New Alien Movie Adds To The Franchise's Exciting Upcoming Slate The slate of Alien movies in development is filled with projects loaded with potential for excellence. Adding Scott's sequel to the mix, there are now five films we know are either firmly in the works or ideas that have been discussed or entertained to some degree. These movies are Alien: Romulus 2, Scott's conclusion to David's trilogy, a movie with Sigourney Weaver returning as Ripley, a new Alien vs. Predator, and rumors of Whalefall's Brian Duffield writing a new feature. Alien: Romulus 2 is the furthest along. Álvarez confirmed the script is already done, even though he is not returning to direct. His replacement has yet to be officially named, although Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) was rumored to be in consideration earlier this year. Rumors that Romulus 2 had been canceled have been debunked, assuring that audiences will get to see Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson) again. Scott's third prequel movie has technically been in the works for years. He's had the idea for a sequel to Alien: Covenant since even before the 2017 film hit theaters. It has fluctuated between being dead and in development over the years as the franchise's future was sorted out. Now, there may just be momentum for Michael Fassbender's David returning one last time and Scott finishing his trilogy, which is long overdue. Weaver has considered returning as Ripley several times over the years, with her most famously attached to make Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5. The franchise icon revealed in 2025 that she met with Disney about coming back for a different Alien movie written by Walter Hill, but no updates have come since then. Regardless, seeing Ripley in action again is a tantalizing prospect. As for Alien vs. Predator, Álvarez expressed interest in making the crossover movie while doing press for Romulus. He even suggested co-directing it with Predator's current architect, Dan Trachtenberg. There have been no signs of it entering development, but the event film sounds up Disney's alley and would certainly be entertaining. Duffield's rumored Alien movie has no details attached, but he'd be an exciting addition to the franchise. He previously made the impressive 2023 sci-fi horror movie No One Will Save You, while he's written other titles in similar genres with Love and Monsters and Underwater. His upcoming movie, Whalefall, comes from 20th Century Studios and looks impressive, so it would make sense for the studio to bring him aboard a key franchise next. Alien's Upcoming Movies Show A Lack Of Cohesion In The Franchise's Direction All these Alien movies sound promising and hopefully happen at some point, but they do scatter the franchise's future. There is a sequel to the most recent film, a sequel to the prequels audiences haven't seen in nearly a decade, a sequel to the originals, a crossover event between two sci-fi franchises, and a mostly unknown project. Having variance in a franchise can bring great results if done correctly, but it also risks confusing audiences. There will naturally be questions about how each of these projects overlap and connect. But the movies would be set in at least four completely different eras of the Alien franchise timeline. So many different narratives and characters going on without strong connectivity between them could bring a feeling that Disney doesn't know exactly what to do with this property. The studio would arguably be better off choosing one or two eras of the franchise to explore rather than go down so many different paths. It would allow Disney to keep Alien focused on specific settings and characters, telling a complete story before moving on to the next. So, rather than have an unfinished trilogy like Scott's prequels, that arc could be closed and then allow a new perspective to become the core. The only major downside to this approach for the studio is that it would slow down how frequently new Alien movies hit theaters. If Disney wants this franchise to be on the big screen every year or two, having multiple franchises within the larger IP running simultaneously is needed. But, considering they haven't made that desire known, it probably isn't a concern. Will All These Alien Movies Even Happen? Currently, there is plenty of uncertainty about whether most of these Alien movies ever make it to theaters. Romulus 2 is the only one we know with certainty that is in active development at Disney and 20th Century. It could be more challenging to get Spaeny and Jonsson's schedules to align, but it would be too big of a missed opportunity for the franchise to not continue Rain and Andy's story after a $350 million first installment. The chances of Scott completing the Prometheus trilogy rest on whether Disney views his idea as strong enough to run with and compelling enough that audiences will seek it out more than Covenant. His incredibly busy schedule and wavering position on whether he even wants to make more Alien movies could complicate matters further. A new movie starring Weaver's Ripley still needs to move further in development, but it does feel like an idea Disney would like. The studio loves nostalgia and bringing back franchise icons years later. Alien 5 (or whatever it would be called) with Ripley at the focus arguably stands the greatest chance of being a smash hit, so this one does feel almost inevitable since Weaver likes the idea. AvP probably would've already been announced if Predator: Badlands was a bigger hit, as it would have shown Disney successfully relaunch both properties in theaters. This crossover might be on the back burner until the studio feels confident audiences want to see more of the Yautja series. As a result, there is a chance that a lot of the hype and excitement around these various Alien movies could lead nowhere. Several may never become fully realized productions, whether because Disney puts some limits on the range of projects it's willing to explore or because the ideas fall apart throughout development. All we can know with absolute certainty is that more Alien movies will come, even if none of the currently known projects see the light of day. Alien Movie(s) Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, Alien: Romulus TV Show(s) Alien: Earth Video Game(s) Aliens: Colonial Marines, Alien: Isolation, Alien: Isolation 2 First Film Alien First TV Show Alien: Earth Genres Sci-Fi, Horror, Action