Ridley Scott believes he's "done enough" with the Alien franchise, admitting that he thought the series was "deadened" after the fourth film, Alien Resurrection.
In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Scott reflected on his time with the extraterrestrial movie series, saying, "I think I felt it was deadened after 4. I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim's was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good."
Despite his reservations, Scott returned to the franchise in 2012 with the fifth film, Prometheus, and later directed Alien: Covenant.
"A number of years after, I said, 'I'm going to resurrect this,' [and wrote] Prometheus from scratch – a blank sheet of paper," he explained. "It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more."
While the director doesn't plan to return to direct another Alien film, he remains involved in the franchise as an executive producer of Noah Hawley's upcoming prequel series Alien: Earth. "Where it's going now, I think I've done enough, and I just hope it goes further," he said.
Scott previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he thought the franchise had been "ran firmly into the ground" after the fourth film. However, he later revisited the idea and pitched a new direction to former 20th Century Fox chief Tom Rothman.
"Then I went back to [Rothman] and said, 'Listen, there's a way out. We should resurrect Alien with Prometheus,'" he recalled.