Divisive Ridley Scott Movie That Grossed Over $400 Million Should've Started A New Sci-Fi Franchise (2025)

Ridley Scott’s polarizing 2012 blockbuster Prometheus would’ve been much better received as a brand-new sci-fi franchise than a tangential Alien prequel. Set around 30 years before the events of Scott’s original Alien movie, Prometheus fills in the unseen origin story of the xenomorphs that terrorized Ellen Ripley. Although it was a box office success, grossing $403,354,469 worldwide against a budget of $130 million (via Box Office Mojo), Prometheus was met with a mixed response from both critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a good-not-great critics’ score of 73% and a certifiably divided audience score of 68%.

Prometheus was praised for its stunning visuals, its thought-provoking themes, and the brilliant performances by its cast (particularly Michael Fassbender as a cold-hearted android). But it was criticized for having a poorly paced script, asking more questions than it answered, and making unnecessary additions to the Alien canon. By explaining where the xenomorphs came from, Prometheus took away a lot of the mystery that made the original Alien movies so terrifying. It’s a great concept, sinking its teeth into the origins of humanity and the confounding enigmas of the universe, but it arguably would’ve worked better as an original story.

Ridley Scott's Prometheus Should've Started A New Sci-Fi Franchise (Not Continued Alien)

Prometheus Is A Strong Enough Sci-Fi Story To Support A Franchise Of Its Own

Prometheus isn’t a bad movie at all, but it is arguably a bad Alien movie. It has some great moments of body horror that would make H.R. Giger proud, like Elizabeth Shaw’s horrifying self-abortion sequence, but it doesn’t really seem interested in being an Alien movie — and it makes too many radical changes to the franchise’s canon for a film that doesn’t really want to be a part of that franchise. It doesn’t have Alien in its title, it doesn’t feature any of the series’ pre-existing characters, and it even has its own visual language separate from the established aesthetic.

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Prometheus has always been one of the Alien franchise's most underrated entries, and I'm glad it's finally getting the appreciation it deserves.

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It would’ve worked much better as an original movie kickstarting its own franchise, not a prequel forcing its Biblical allegories into the backstory of the Alien franchise. A group of scientists venturing into deep space to solve the mysteries of the universe is a solid enough premise for a sci-fi franchise without bringing the familiar xenomorphs into the mix. Prometheus might not have made $400 million if it wasn’t marketed as a new Alien movie from the original director, but audiences would’ve gone in with more of an open mind.

Prometheus' Engineers Could've Been The Start Of A Whole New Sci-Fi Universe

The Worst Thing About The Engineers Is Their Forced Connection To The Xenomorphs

The story of Prometheus revolves around the Engineers, a race of highly evolved, highly intelligent beings who create new lifeforms across the universe with specific goals and purposes. The movie reveals that the Engineers were responsible for creating the human race, and after seeing how greedy and harmful humanity is, they started plotting humanity’s destruction. In PrometheusAlien-adjacent storyline, the Engineers created the xenomorphs to be humanity’s mortal enemy and ultimately wipe them out. But if the xenomorph is taken out of the equation, that would still be a compelling story.

An early draft of the Prometheus script was called Alien: Engineers.

With all the wars and genocides in humanity’s history, it would make sense for the universe’s all-powerful overlords to deem human beings unworthy of existence. By turning that plot into the creation of the xenomorphs, Prometheus sucked all the tension and intrigue out of the early Alien films. What made the xenomorphs so terrifying was the ominous mystery surrounding them; giving them an origin story ruined that. Prometheus isn’t a good sci-fi movie because of its connection to the Alien mythology; it’s a good sci-fi movie in spite of its connection to Alien.

Not Much Of Prometheus Needs To Change To Remove Its Alien Connection

It's Barely Connected To The Alien Saga As It Is

Divisive Ridley Scott Movie That Grossed Over $400 Million Should've Started A New Sci-Fi Franchise (2)

It would’ve been pretty easy to rewrite Prometheus as an original story with no official ties to the Alien franchise. As it is, Prometheus’ connections to the larger Alien saga are tangential at best. All the film’s references to Alien lore — from LV-223 to the Space Jockey to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to the Proto-Xenomorphs — would be easy to replace with similar original concepts. Rename the moon and the company, swap out the Space Jockey for another astronaut carcass, and redesign the Proto-Xenomorphs to look less like ancestors of Giger’s iconic xenomorph, and Prometheus is an original story.

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I Really Wish Prometheus Hadn't Added This Controversial Part Of Alien Mythology

Prometheus isn't as bad as some critics suggested, but I'll never forgive Ridley Scott's Alien prequel for derailing the franchise with one detail.

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If Prometheus wasn’t an Alien movie, then it wouldn’t have been criticized for failing to answer the franchise’s unanswered questions. If it was just the beginning of a new franchise with many sequels ahead, then the unanswered questions wouldn’t be a point of contention; they’d drum up excitement for the next installment. Hollywood is becoming increasingly wary about taking a chance on big-budget original movies — studios are more confident pumping money into projects with links to existing I.P. — but Prometheus is a rare example of a film that would’ve been more successful if it wasn’t tied to a beloved franchise.

Source: Box Office Mojo

Divisive Ridley Scott Movie That Grossed Over $400 Million Should've Started A New Sci-Fi Franchise (4)

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Prometheus

2012's Prometheus is the fifth installment in the Alien franchise and was directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce, the film acts as a direct prequel to 1979's Alien.

Director
Ridley Scott
Cast
Charlize Theron , Noomi Rapace , Idris Elba , Guy Pearce , Michael Fassbender

Runtime
124 Minutes
Franchise(s)
Alien
Divisive Ridley Scott Movie That Grossed Over $400 Million Should've Started A New Sci-Fi Franchise (2025)

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