Screen Rant's beloved Pitch Meeting series takes on Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant. In 2017, Scott continued his Alien prequel series with Covenant, a sequel to the much-debated Prometheus. The latest installment was set 11 years after Prometheus and followed a new crew as they set out for the far reaches of space on a colonization mission. On the way to their intended destination, a solar flare incident kills the captain and leads android Walter (a returning Michael Fassbender) to wake up 14 crewmembers. When they catch wind of a potentially hospitable planet nearby, select members of the crew venture down to explore it, which proves to have deadly consequences.
Alien: Covenant was greeted with generally positive reviews from critics, but audience members were a bit cooler in their reception. Though Prometheus was a box office success, Covenant stumbled. With a domestic gross of only $74.3 million and a worldwide total of $240.9 million, the film was considered a disappointment. This made potential sequels uncertain, though Scott had planned for another. Alien: Covenant ended on a compelling cliffhanger, and Scott has discussed how the sequel would further bridge the gap between the prequels and the original Alien.
With the future of the franchise still uncertain, Screen Rant's Ryan George has tackled Alien: Covenant for the Pitch Meeting series. Acting as both the screenwriter and the studio executive, George draws attention to the absurd plot elements and underwritten characters with his typically hilarious touch. Check it out down below.
As pointed out in the Pitch Meeting, the characters make a lot of questionable decisions in Alien: Covenant, such as when the landing party trusts android David (also Fassbender) despite various red flags popping up. The video also points out how Katherine Waterston's lead heroine Daniels is clearly the main character of an Alien film because "she's a badass-looking female character with short hair in an Alien movie," much like Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the original movies. All told, Alien: Covenant is a pretty mixed entry to the franchise, with Scott trying to balance the deeper themes from Prometheus and the thrills from Alien.
Alien: Covenant ended with Daniels, on her way back into cryosleep, discovering the nefarious David had taken Walter's place on board their ship, giving him access to thousands of sleeping passengers for his experiments. That clearly paved the way for a sequel, but while Scott confirmed last fall he's developing a new Alien movie, it remains to be seen if it will have any ties to Covenant. Audiences hoping for a resolution to that particular plot point might have to brace themselves for disappointment; or perhaps they should come up with their own explanation for what happens next. That might be the only way they will get closure.