The Alien Franchise Changing Main Characters Will Finally Complete Ridley Scott's Most Ambitious Story

Published Sep 17, 2026, 7:12 AM EDT

Karlis has been obsessing over television and movie news since he first learned how to read. He has worked in tech, as a musician, and in journalism with a well-rounded knowledge base of pop-culture throughout the eras. He claims that he has memorized the entire Internet Movie Database, and to date no one has been able to refute this.
Holding a Bachelor's Degree in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University, Karlis loves to examine the intersections of popular science-fiction and culture. His latest novel MASS. is available now on Amazon and examines a world where obesity has become a federal crime.

Ridley Scott has made several Alien movies throughout his long and accomplished career, but his next one has the potential to be his best yet by finishing the director's most ambitious story. Since 1979, the Alien movies have thrilled audiences around the world, crafting an exciting and terrifying universe filled with Xenomorphs among other colorful and horrific monsters.

Despite this, most Alien movies have been standalone. Alien was a terrific space adventure with a thrilling ending, and while the Aliens timeline picked up with Ridley a full 57 years later, the sequel again told its own story, largely with a new cast of characters. Besides Ripley herself, few Alien characters have appeared in multiple films.

Since Ridley Scott's Prometheus was released in 2012, however, a clearer bent to the larger franchise's story became evident with big ideas about the engineers and the creation of the Xenomorphs. Those films gave the Alien franchise a replacement main character who has only grown in importance in the years and projects released since.

Alien has also deviated from that particular story, with the fantastic Alien: Romulus, and the streaming series Alien: Earth. While both of these are strong entries and add to the larger universe of Alien, they don't satisfyingly fill out the story proposed in Prometheus in the ways that many have hoped to see. Fortunately, Ridley Scott's return to the series is planned to fix exactly that.

Ridley Scott's Alien Prequels Are Ambitious Misfires

Ridley Scott made two strange and thrilling prequels to the Alien series with the 2012 movie Prometheus and its 2017 follow-up, Alien: Covenant. While both films have some fantastic things to offer, the response to each was mixed.

Prometheus was the far more successful of the two, but its connections to the Alien franchise were rather muted. Rather than telling a story about Xenomorphs, Scott's 2012 film grappled with much bigger questions about the origins of human life, packed to the brim with some clumsy and some brilliant philosophical ideas.

The film was a box office success as a giant, epic space adventure, but Prometheus often felt at odds with the Alien franchise. The only moment to feature anything like a Xenomorph occurred right at the end, with the emergence of the Deacon.

Audiences somewhat liked Prometheus, but still yearned for more stories that fit the typical Alien mold. To follow up on the film, Scott made Alien: Covenant, which attempted to tie the two divergent tones together more cohesively. Unfortunately, the balance of the Xenomorph action against the philosophical ideas of the film did not entirely work.

Scott's films about creation were full of interesting ideas, and much of this was carried by a major character who appeared in both films. While Covenant's commercial and critical responses were more mixed than its predecessor, it has set the franchise up for a satisfying conclusion in its next chapter.

Alien's Next Movie Makes Michael Fassbender's David The Main Character

Via MovieStillsDB

The next upcoming movie in the Alien series has been discussed by Ridley Scott, and will feature Michael Fassbender's David as the central character. Little detail has been revealed about the film, but Scott has spoken about it while promoting his latest project, The Dog Stars.

During an interview with the French outlet AlloCiné, he revealed his plans to helm a new chapter in the Alien franchise. Referring to the last chapter in the series, the brilliant Alien: Romulus, as just "OK," Scott suggested that the series needs him to get back on track. He revealed his general plans for the new story:

“I’ve already got a footprint for the next Alien. We did Prometheus, and then Alien: Covenant. So, I’m picking up where we left off in Covenant with Micheal Fassbender, who now thinks he’s Ozymandius.”

David has been a major part of the series since Prometheus, and his planned fate was set to be wrapped up in an Alien novel. Fortunately, this novel was canceled in order to give Scott the room to tell more stories with the character if he ever decided to.

Because of this, there are many pertinent themes that David can be used to examine. The character is a striking addition to the films, and tells a gripping story of a creation that has learned to resent his creators. David's twisted actions in Covenant have left the android in a curious state that could be especially interesting to return to now.

Scott continued discussing the importance of reckoning with AI technology in the real world, and how those ideas could be examined in a new Alien sequel built around David. Modeling himself after the powerful and hubristic pharaoh Ozymandias could make the character even more twisted and even more compelling.

"If we go AI, the moment we discover it’s off the rails is too late," he said, reflecting on the real world's rapid advancements in technology. While terrifying in the state of the real world, these ideas are also ripe for exploration in media, and could help to make this next Alien film both relevant and, unfortunately, perhaps even prescient.

Why David As The Main Character Is Perfect For Completing Ridley Scott's Alien Story

While Ripley was clearly the glue that held the original Alien films together, Michael Fassbender's David has served the same role within Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Covenant story. The android character has grown only more relevant with time, and seems to be the perfect figure against which to prop this new Alien story.

An ageless machination, David's story in the prior films has provided some interesting commentary on the themes of creator and creation. As the real world moves further into the use of artificial intelligence, applying those ideas to these stories, mixed up in an action-packed thriller, would be ideal.

Granted, Alien: Earth has already proposed some interesting questions about personhood. This was done with the "Lost Boys" hybrids that put human minds inside synthetic bodies built by the Prodigy Corporation. Sydney Chandler's Wendy is a highlight of these characters, and has since become one of the most interesting and compelling figures on television.

However, propped on the back of a big star like Fassbender, this next Alien film has the potential to tackle some similar ideas differently, and satisfyingly tie the larger series neatly together.

Even if Ridley Scott's films in recent years have not been his strongest, the man is still one of the best and most accomplished filmmakers in Hollywood history. If he has an exciting ideas for another installment in the Alien franchise, it is certainly one that will be worth exploring.

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