Over the last few weeks,Ridley Scotthas been making the promotional rounds for his highly-anticipated sci-fi dramaThe Martian, which is already getting Oscar buzz ahead of its release this weekend. The filmmaker has also been discussing hisPrometheusfollow-up, which was recently given the new title ofAlien: Paradise Lost. Many fans were disappointed thatPrometheusdidn’t have much connection to the director’s original classicAlien, but that will certainly change. While speaking withYahoo! Movies,Ridley Scottconfirmed that John Milton’s classic story Paradise Lost helped inform his sequel toPrometheus.
“Have you ever read Paradise Lost, by Milton? In a funny kind of way, it’s an interesting basis for the darkness of [Prometheus 2]. Where the good-looking guy, who is evil as s-t, gets all the girls and goes to the nightclubs. The other guy, who is not quite as good-looking, is boring as hell and stays home. So in a funny kind of way, we used that as the basis for it, it’ll beAlien: Paradise Lost. Which is very spooky, because it continues after the last one, where Elizabeth Shaw [Noomi Rapace] says, ‘I wanna go where they came from.’ And you’ve gotMichael Fassbenderin two parts, so she’ll slowly put him back together. They will go to the world of the Engineer. That’s where they’re going to go. They will find out who would design such an awful bio-mechanoid creature, like a massive piece of bacteria.”
Ridley Scottrevealed last week thatAlien: Paradise Lostwill connect to the originalAliencharacter Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), along with the original creatures known as theXenomorphs. The director has also teased that he is planning multiplePrometheussequels, with either the third or fourth movie connecting directly to theAlienfranchise. How the connections will be made in any of these movies has not been revealed, but with shooting set to begin in January 2016, hopefully we’ll get some new details soon.
Noomi RapaceandMichael Fassbenderwere the onlyPrometheuscharacters to survive, so don’t expect anyone else from the original movie popping up in the sequel. With that being said, it isn’t known what new characters have been added into this story by screenwritersJack PaglenandMichael Green. AsRidley Scottmentioned, Shaw and David will be seeking out the home planet of The Engineers, to unlock secrets about humanity’s creation. Whether or not they succeed is certainly unclear, but there will surely be much more to tell between the end of this sequel and the start ofAlien.
Ridley Scottconfirmed last year that the sequel will feature a new alien. The filmmaker added that the “baby alien” inPrometheuswas “very close” to the creature from his originalAlienmovie, adding that this extraterrestrial in the sequel will be much different. What do you think about these new details? Are you looking forward toAlien: Paradise Lost?
