Name: Aliens
Genre: Sci-Fi

Despite the critical and commercial success of the Alien movie, the movie's director, Ridley Scott, was not asked to direct the sequel, Aliens. Alien was released by 20th Century Fox in 1979 and starred Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holmes, and Yaphet Kotto. The sci-fi horror movie followed the commercial spaceship Nostromo's crew as they battled a deadly Xenomorph that quickly decimated the crew, leaving one survivor, Ellen Ripley (Weaver). Scott's formative influence on this now iconic plot was notably lacking in Aliens.

Alien's original script was co-created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shushett (who penned the screenplay for Total Recall). According to an article in Variety, when it came time to hire a director for the first movie in the franchise, Scott was the producers' fourth choice. After they saw Ridley's first feature-length movie, The Duelists (1977), which won the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best First Work, the producers offered Scott the job. Unfortunately for Scott, his experience wasn't enough to land him a gig directing the Alien sequel, which would proceed to tell the story of the terrifying Xenomorphs.

Ridley Scott Wasn't Asked Back To Direct Aliens

James Cameron Directed Aliens

Sigourney Weaver, as Ripley, prepares to attack in Aliens (1986).

Instead of Ridley Scott, it was James Cameron who ended up directing Aliens. After Alien was snatched up by Brandywine Productions - founded by filmmakers Walter Hill, David Giler, and Gordon Carroll - the original Alien script underwent massive revisions. Although the final product was largely the work of Giler and Hill (who worked on a script for the canceled movie Alien 5), O'Bannon received a sole writing credit. This complexity speaks to the fluid variability and unpredictability of the franchise's crew.

Alien: Romulus was directed by Fede Álvarez and was released in August 2024.

The exit of 20th Century Fox studio head Alan Ladd Jr., and a lengthy legal battle over profits from Alien stalled plans for the sequel. Following the success of James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), Brandywine greenlit Aliens (1986) and tapped Cameron to write the screenplay and direct the sequel to Scott's hit. Sigourney Weaver reprised her role as Ellen Ripley, who returned to LV-426 to rescue colonists who ran afoul of an army of xenomorphs. Scott was never attached to the project.

Collage of Dwayne on a headset, Ripley with a gun holding Newt, and Ripley looking worn down in Aliens

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In a 2019 interview, Scott told THR why he didn't direct the sequel - “Interestingly enough, I was never asked to do the sequel. Maybe because I was such a tough guy when I was doing it, they didn’t want me back. But I was also in the habit of not wanting to do a sequel then either. So I would never have done it.” This was in the wake of the blowback over Scott's Alien prequels. However, in 2012, when Scott was still working on Prometheus, he wasn't so cavalier about being passed over in another interview with THR, stating "I was really p***ed off, frankly."

Aliens Was A Huge Success With James Cameron

Aliens Did Even Better Than Alien

Aliens surpassed its predecessor at the box office, grossing $131 million worldwide, and the movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Two more movies followed - Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher, and Alien: Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Both movies followed Ellen Ripley's ongoing battle against the creatures. Cameron went on to make two of the highest-grossing movies of all-time: Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009). Ultimately, Cameron's stint as Aliens' director was a jewel in his crown as one of filmmaking's titans.

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott wasn't stopped by his rejection from Aliens. Scott enjoyed an illustrious career as a producer, as well as helming the movies Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001). However, Scott was far from done with Alien. The director proved his love of the story and his undying devotion to flying its flag in the years following the release of Aliens. Scott went on to release Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, then spoke to Forbes when he was in the process of developing other Alien movies:

We went down a route to try and reinvent the wheel with Prometheus and Covenant. Whether or not we go directly back to that is doubtful because Prometheus woke it up very well. But you know, you’re asking fundamental questions like, ‘Has the Alien himself, the facehugger, the chestburster, have they all run out of steam? Do you have to rethink the whole bloody thing and simply use the word to franchise?’ That’s always the fundamental question.

Why Ridley Scott Returned To The Alien Franchise With Prometheus & Covenant

Alien Wasn't Scott's Final Alien Movie

Ridley Scott returned to Alien with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant due to the power and mystery of the original story, which Scott realized hadn't been explored to the maximum. The original Alien movie grossed $101.7 million worldwide upon its initial release, was nominated for two Academy Awards, and spawned three sequels. The original movie jump-started a massively successful franchise that included not only movies, but novels, comics, and video games. Scott was wise to cash in on the franchise's enduring success with the fun, scary, and thrilling movies he created in the franchise in the 2010s.

Ridley Scott returned to Alien with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant due to the power and mystery of the original story, which Scott realized hadn't been explored to the maximum.

In 2015, Scott told THR that he planned to reconnect with the Alien series with Prometheus as the first of three or more movies that would eventually revisit the creature that had audience members screaming, fainting, and even fleeing the theater in 1979. Alien: Covenant was released in 2017. In a May 2020 interview with the LA Times, Scott said that when he was making Alien, he pondered the origin of the xenomorph and the purpose of the ship and the eggs. Those ideas gave Scott reason to believe that the story was far from depleted and inspired him to keep creating for Alien.

Sources: Variety, THR, Forbes, LA Times