Ridley Scott is never one to mince words. Just Google his name and you’re likely to find the legendary director’s hot takes on a variety of subjects, like extraterrestrials, Star Wars, and beyond. That’s especially true when it comes to franchises he helped make famous like Blade Runner and Alien. So, with the first Alien TV show in the works, it’s no surprise that Scott’s opinion of it is decidedly spicy.
Late last year, Disney confirmed that writer-director Noah Hawley was working on a brand new TV show based on the iconic Alien franchise. But, unlike the movies from Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, and others, which mostly take place on faraway planets or in space, Hawley’s story will be set on Earth. “The alien stories are always trapped,” he said earlier this year. “Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”
Which, hypothetically, sounds interesting since the Alien stories were largely about keeping the aliens away from Earth. Flipping that at least makes sense as a way to do something new and fresh. However, one person seems to disagree: Ridley Scott. “It’ll never be as good as the first one,” Scott told The Independent when asked for his opinion on the show. “That’s what I’ll say.”
By just saying that, Scott is obviously implying a lot. He’s implying that he’s not a fan of the idea or the show and that he feels his version of the franchise remains the best which, honestly, it pretty much does. In the same interview he even pointed out that having the xenomorph creature at the centre of the story isn’t necessarily what audiences want, using the example that his prequel Prometheus, which didn’t centre on xenomorphs (though one does appear), massively outgrossed Alien: Covenant, which did.
Neither of those films are as good as the original either, so Scott’s opinion on the show kind of applies to his own work as well. Nevertheless, anytime the director of Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, and The Martian talks, we love to listen.