20th Century Fox has announced that an “untitled Ridley Scott project” is set for release in March 2016, and The Wrap reports that multiple sources have confirmed it will be a follow-up to Scott’s ambitious sci-fi movie Prometheus. But considering everything that happens by the end of Prometheus, what would that sequel actually be about?
Here are five plot directions the sequel could take. Obviously spoilers for Prometheus and all the Alien movies ahead!
Spoilers for Prometheus ahead!
1.) Dr. Elizabeth Shaw Finds Other Space Pilgrims
Prometheus concludes with Dr. Elizabeth Shaw striking out into the unknown with a hijacked ship from the Engineers in search of her “answers.” With her is the severely damaged David android who poisoned her husband and was generally not helpful throughout the entire Prometheus mission. You can’t really conceive of an entire movie with just Shaw and David cruising around, but Prometheus 2 could do something similar to Aliens, which paired Ripley with a bunch of new characters towards the start of the film. The propulsion system on the Engineer ship is probably pretty serious, so Shaw and David could suddenly find themselves in another galaxy, or at the center or the edge of our own. There they could discover a whole mess of other ships from various other species all in search of the same answers. A bunch of these aliens could be friendly and weird, but maybe some of them aren’t so great….
2.) Ripley Attempts to Murder Shaw
Because the little squid-thing inside of Shaw is what subsequently creates the xenomorphs, the terrible creatures from the other Alien movies start with her. A sequel then, could really connect the two universes. And that means it’s time to bring back Ripley, specifically Sigourney Weaver. The smart thing here would be to ignore Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection and instead pretend like this is Ripley post-Aliens but a few decades later. Because Shaw is messing around with crazy Engineer faster-than-light travel, she ends up traveling into her own future and seeing all the damage the little squid-baby caused. Enter Ripley, mad as hell and ready to bring the creator of the xenomorphs to justice. Of course Ripley thinks Shaw did it all on purpose and was in league with Weyland, but when she finds out the truth, both of them have to confront the big questions of the search for truth, versus doing what’s practical.
3.) Charlize Theron Returns; Reveals She is a Robot
Most audience members feel a little cheated about the inclusion of Charlize Theron’s character in the movie at all. And many were even more annoyed by the tease that she might be a robot. Was she Weyland’s daughter? Why was she so mad all the time? How come she wasn’t in the movie more? Prometheus 2 could potentially open with Charlize Theron’s hand popping out of the dirt to reveal that she did not die at all on the Planet-of-Crazy. Instead, she wakes up and realizes that there’s something in David’s program that Shaw doesn’t know about. The audience doesn’t know either, but let’s just say David is hell-bent on populating the universe with even more squid babies. Charlize could be like David’s older robot sibling, and thus know slightly more about the crazy stuff Weyland was up to. While David might think he’s doing the right thing, Charlize could realize he’s just being used, resulting in Shaw being caught in the middle of something much bigger than she thought…
4.) Whatever Happened to the Prometheus Mission?
This version would take a more horror-movie AvP approach to the whole plot. Perhaps Weyland Industries sends another ship to figure out what happened to the Prometheus mission. Some great big name actors could be part of this crew, and once they arrive they find Charlize Thereon there, dying in the dust. Her last words are “watch out for the monsters” (or something actually awesome.) From this point on, this new crew begins doing battle not only with xenomorph aliens we’re more familiar with, but also the Engineers themselves. To make things interesting, this crew could also have a David android model with them, who somehow receives signals from the other David hanging out with Shaw. Everybody gets together at some point for a massive confab in which the Engineers reveal what humans did to piss them off so much.
5.) Spaceship Battles: Human Versus Engineers
This version would be a bit of mishmash of the Space Pilgrims idea combined with the basic threat from Prometheus. Here, Shaw could discover other people are looking for the Enginners too, but not because they want answers! Instead, the Engineers are destroying tons of planets, trying to wipe out all kinds of life. David and Shaw of course know way more about them than most people, so they become invaluable to the war effort to stop the Engineers from destroying all life, everywhere. How would you avoid contradicting the Alien series? Easy: have this all take place in a distant galaxy that also has humans in it who originated from a different planet. Maybe they don’t speak English, so David translates for Shaw. Or maybe they do…making things either more interesting or more confusing…
All right space jockeys! What else could actually happen in Prometheus 2? Chime in below!
Ryan Britt is s long-time contributor to Tor.com. He is the squid baby.
