Shortly after telling the LA Times that a sequel to Alien: Covenant is in the works, Ridley Scott has shared new details about his return to the franchise he started with his 1979 classic Alien.

“I’m rewriting the next Alien film,” Ridley Scott told AlloCiné about the next instalment of the sci-fi horror franchise. “I suddenly went back and got involved. The one that just came out [2024’s Alien: Romulus] was OK. I think it needs some help, so I’ve gone back in.”

The news appears to clarify that Scott’s sequel to Covenant will replace the sequel to Fede Álvarez’s Romulus as the upcoming eighth instalment. Álvarez revealed last year that he would not return to direct a follow-up to Romulus, but that he had written the story with Scott.

The upcoming film will now continue the story of the rogue AI David (Michael Fassbender) from Scott’s prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. “I like the fact that AI has gone off the rails,” the director said of Fassbender’s character. “If we go AI, the moment we discover it’s off the rails is too late. It could switch every digital thing off in the world like that. You’d have fucking chaos. It’s that kind of stuff that’s scary.”

While the follow-up to Covenant now appears to be the franchise’s next instalment, it remains to be seen whether a direct sequel continuing the story of Alien: Romulus’ Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson) will be made after Scott concludes his prequel trilogy. The 2024 film, framed as a back-to-basics action-horror following Scott’s more meditative prequels, was a surprise box office hit, grossing over $350 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time in the IMAX format with $40 million in IMAX ticket sales.