'Alien: Awakening' Could Return To Alien Home World, If It Gets Made At All

The future of the Alien franchise is in doubt, mostly because audiences haven't taken kindly to Ridley Scott's strange new direction started with Prometheus and followed with Alien: Covenant. But Scott was already planning an Alien: Covenant sequel, with Covenant writer John Logan handling the script. New details about Logan's script, titled Alien: Awakening, have hatched. The next film in the series would see Michael Fassbender's evil android David battling the gigantic Engineers on LV-426, the moon where the Xenomorph was discovered in the first Alien.

I know this is a crazy opinion, but I genuinely enjoyed Alien: Covenant. I wasn't such a big fan of Prometheus, but with Covenant, I think Ridley Scott finally hit his stride with his strange Alien prequel universe. It was a gothic-infused work of body horror with a great performance from Michael Fassbender, and I was looking forward to see where Scott would go with the next film. Unfortunately, the next film might not happen, because most audiences don't share my enthusiasm for Covenant.

But there is a script at the ready for the next film, should it ever happen. Empire (per HN Entertainment) has some details on that script in their Empire Classics Alien Special issue. If old school Alien fans were hoping the next film, Alien: Awakening, would start to look more like the classic Alien films, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the film apparently ends up on LV-426, the planet we first saw back in the first Alien. The bad news is that it once again involves David front and center. Personally speaking, I'm fine with this. But I know many fans just want the franchise to get back to its Xenomorph roots. Per Empire:

"Logan's script would have seen the return of Prometheus' Engineers, with that species' survivors coming after the genocidal David. Setting-wise, Scott said it was obvious 'We're gonna actually go to the planet'. by which we assume he means LV-426."

In case you forgot, the Engineers were the big, muscular alien species we glimpsed in Prometheus. In Covenant, we learned that David returned to the Engineer home world, and wiped them all out in the name of his twisted science experiments, because he's not exactly the nicest android. Awakening would reveal that some Engineers survived, and they (understandably) want to get even with David. One can assume the Xenomorphs would show up in some capacity as well, but it's pretty clear that Scott is far more interested in David's story at this point.

There's always a chance we might see this film happen, but I have my doubts. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if Fox left Scott and his prequel franchise behind, and rebooted Alien entirely.