Sir Ridley Scott divided opinions last week when he declared that he was returning to the Alien franchise to take over from Fede Álvarez, after the Evil Dead helmer's "okay" Alien: Romulus. The plan now is to shift the spotlight back to Michael Fassbender's android, David.
The creator of the Xenomorphs was front and centre in 2012's Prometheus and its 2017 sequel, Alien: Covenant. Álvarez reportedly wanted to use the character in his next Alien movie, which prompted Scott to pull rank and return.
Now, in a new interview, Scott has credited himself with saving the Alien franchise. After helming 1979's Alien, he allowed James Cameron to take charge of 1986's Aliens. From there, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection both disappointed in the 90s before the Xenomorphs found themselves battling Predators in a couple of poorly received crossovers.
"I did the best one by far," Scott declared, referring to Alien. "Full stop. End of the f***ing story. Then they let it die. After [Alien] 4, they killed it. So I sat there thinking, 'I’m going to bring it back.' So I sat down with a very good writer; two guys [and] eventually ended up with Damon Lindelof, and we caught fire and wrote Prometheus."
While many fans argue that Aliens is the better movie, the filmmaker continued, "So I suddenly bring [it] back where it all began. Then I thought that shook the cage a bit and I did the next one, Alien Covenant. So now it’s up and running."
Alien did need help in the late 2000s, and Prometheus made a solid $403.4 million worldwide. However, Alien: Covenant was deemed a flop, grossing only $240.9 million.
Neither movie received reviews as positive as those for Alien: Romulus, Alien, Aliens, and Alien: Earth, though Scott seems to be taking credit for all of those, too.
Alien Resurrection, starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder, made only $161.4 million and was panned by critics. In 2005, writer Joss Whedon said, "It wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script — it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, meanwhile, has said, "I was a little bit concerned to watch my film – maybe I won’t like it? No, it was great! I have a lot of shots that I love. For the people who don’t like it, I can say, 'F*** you!'"
You can hear more from Scott in the player below.