'Alien: Covenant' Sequel Cancelled By Fox, Will Disney Greenlight A Reboot?
It's no secret that "Alien: Covenant" failed to recapture the magic that made its predecessors into a massively popular pop-culture phenomena. Fox appears to have had the same idea as the studio is rumored to have already scrapped the third film, "Alien: Awakening." But with the studio under new management, is there still a chance for Ridley Scott to complete his trilogy?
Sources who worked on the film say that after "Alien: Covenant" limped to just $74 million in domestic box office grosses, Fox has decided to cancel its sequel. Of course, this is currently just speculation but the information does add up especially considering that the sequel was already rumored to be in trouble.
"The sequel to Covenant was originally due to start preproduction this month in Sydney," the source said. "After the box office results, filming was canceled, and a warehouse storage unit full of stuff was auctioned off a few months ago. So the original plan of pumping out another quickly has definitely changed with no immediate plans for anything."
It does make sense that pre-production should be rolling given that Scott was feeling confident and wanted to film the third film next year. Unfortunately, "Alien: Covenant" was divisive among critics and performed poorly in the box office. The film earned a paltry $240 million worldwide against a budget of $97 million, not at all what Fox had been hoping for a film of this caliber.
However, one should not underestimate Scott's sheer will to make his third film happen and with Disney's recent purchase of Fox, there's a chance that it could happen. After all, Disney is known for getting everything out its investments and "Alien" is one franchise that is just too good to pass up.
But with the first two films' poor performance, Disney could end up producing a reboot in order to remake the film in its own image. Whether Scott would be willing to go with it however is still to be decided.