Proto alien

For months now, the film world has been alight—with what little information there is—about Ridley Scott’s planned Alien prequel. Yes, as in, “What the hell happened before humans became part of their food chain?”

Early speculation revolved around the derelict ship seen in the first two films, and the fate of the mysterious “space jockey” whose corpse seems fused to the ship’s tech. But Ridley (kind of) dispels that notion with this interesting tidbit he shared with Empire magazine:

“It’s a brand new box of tricks,” said Sir Ridley. “We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”

But will a prequel even have humans in it? Conventional understanding is that the Nostromo incident marked the first encounter between humans and the xenomorphs (aka the scary aliens). Or was it? Perhaps there’s more to explore regarding the mysterious motives of Weylan(d)-Yutani, the corporate villain of the franchise.

Whatever Scott and company decide for the story, I eagerly await to see what comes from his box of tricks.