Where would you end the franchise?

End it at 3

Durp004-

A purist. Indeed, that was where it was supposed to end.

It wraps everything up. The only known hive was destroyed in Aliens, and the remaining ones got taken out in 3 with Ripley.

It wraps up Ripley's story and the xenomorph. Everything since 3 seems to be this huge reach to keep the series going.

Durp004

Agree. However, given where things are now, how would you end it?

Finish these prequel movies assuming there's still going to be 3, then stop. I don't really care for anything about Alien 5 so if it never gets made it won't hurt my feelings.

Durp004

Agree. Well said.

I think District 9 has been the best "alien" movie this millennium (excluding Arrival), so I am a bit intrigued to see what Blompkamp can come up with even though his stock is deteriorating day by day.

Look, we already have 3, 4, the AVPs, facehugger cushions and xeno coloring books. So what's left to lose? But think of how much we could gain.

And let me say, in this current climate of rebooting franchises, instead of rebooting from the beginning, why can't we reboot Alien 3 (or Resurrection)? Alien "5" gets a shot at being "3". And if it fails, we'll just keep trying -- like Spiderman! (I'm joking)

District 9 was cool, then in Elysium and Chappie it's pretty evident that Blomkamp likes video games with his emphasis on gore and futuristic weaponry displayed in bullet time. His last two films weren't very good imo.

I'm not sure it's a good idea for him to direct an Alien film, but I could be wrong.

Agreed. Ending the alien saga at 3..making the original 3 and 4 canon by dreams while ripley being in stasis cryo sleep. She wakes up sees newt and hicks and shenanigans foward whatever they want and end it there.

I think that AC and possible sequels, while connecting to Alien, will serve to expand the 'franchise' away from Xeno related action. I don't think that's a bad thing, as I just love scifi, particularly the gritty 'non-space-opera' type of movie ;) - so would welcome (within reason) other takes on this universe and connected/related aspects.

As far as the Xeno story goes, I'll be interested in seeing how Blomkamp reconciles his ideas with where Ridley is coming from. To me, Blomkamp is all about the 'Company's' acquisition of weaponised Xenos. I'm excited to see where that goes, particularly with Bompkamp's awesome design aesthetic - the ships, technology, weapons will be awesome, for sure.

As Tiago_miami_la says, I think his segue into A5 would make sense to see A3 and Ressurection as dreams - this is quite nicely set up by the dialogue between Ripley and Newt at the end of Aliens. I would be happy for the 'movie about Xenos' franchise to end at A5, but could see other spin offs being interesting.

What we have now is a continuum - Alien is the middle point - the true inception of the Xeno concept in it's purest form (survival). Moving forward on that timeline, we got Aliens, which took the survival aspect, and ramped up the Company's desire to acquire these 'weapons'. Following that, we got several movies that sought to exploit the fascination with Xenos, some of which were good, some weren't.

Going the other way (backwards from Alien) we have exploration of aspects not really specifically about Xenos. This could well turn out to be very interesting, but less so for those who primarily want to see aliens killing humans (although we'll get plenty of that in AC I'm sure!).

I guess my point is the 'franchise' is now much bigger than the previous star (Xeno) and has a lot to offer telling related stories. It's a little like the argument about Star Wars not being Star Wars without Darth Vader. Rogue One proved admirably that there was a great story (very well executed as well) to tell without relying on DV to sell it.

Alien had a great ending until the sequel came out and made Ripley lose her family, Aliens had a great ending until the sequel came out and killed the people Ripley saved, Alien 3 had a great ending until the sequel had Ripley cloned. All these sequels by different people only cared about continuity as far as justifying their own ideas into the narrative, this series simply isn't a set storyline like Star Wars and doesn't need to be. 

If a promising director ever shows up with a good enough vision and ideas to make a good scary movie with the alien, then let them have it. Alien should be more about the intergrity of each installement rather than the continuity and the quantity, wich honestly makes me kind of nervous about whatever the hell is coming next now.

That said, I wasn't exited about Blomkamp's pitch because I got the feeling it was more of a love letter to the James Cameron's movie rather than something really new and original and personal. An Alien movie shouldn't be derivative.

Aliens was highly derivative of Alien.  Cameron simply changed it from horror to action/ horror.

As for ending the franchise - why end it? You can end specific arc - Ripley, Shaw, whoever - but there's no need to end the franchise.

Alien 3 is where the Ripley story ends, Alien Resurrection is a continuation but is very different in style and tone, for some reason it reminds me of a 'comic book movie', maybe in this case a graphic novel. But the tone of the first 3 has a gritty reality to them. The idea of an Alien 5 that scratches out Alien 3 repulses me, it would ruin a perfect end to the story. Alien 3 has an intoxicating atmosphere which doesn't get the respect it deserves. As the audience you build up relationships and love with Hicks, Newt, and Bishop in Aliens. You're delighted at the end, they escape, and Ripley finds peace and purpose. Alien 3 starts and all that is taken away, it gives the audience a genuine gut punch. Just because it's bleak and depressing doesn't mean it's bad. With the production hell it went through Alien 3 deserves praise not detest. The music is the best of the franchise, and it is far more interesting visually than Aliens, in my opinion. In a universe such as Alien there cannot be any happy endings. Ripley's story is over, in my eyes. It doesn't need adjusting or retconning. 

The idea of films about the universe is incredibly interesting to me, and Ridley Scott, judging by the trailer, seems to have a clear idea of what he's doing now. 

The "gut punch" is one of the reasons it doesn't get respect.

Exactly @S.M - the franchise is now so much bigger than the Ripley/alien story arc. While that can and will end, there are many more interesting things to explore. As with anything that exists over a long period of time (movie franchise, comics, bands) - people have their own views about the time when they were at their peak. That is the often reality with the Arts - its in the eye of the beholder (not to be too cliched).

As long as they respect the process (i.e. the right budget, story, director, writers) I will likely keep going to see (and ultimately, collecting merchandise) from any continued movies in the Alien/Prometheus universe. There's plenty of scope for some good story arcs, rather than just squeezing out one last movie from an exhausted arc that tries to make the unbelievable believable.

@Muzzle and SM

Totally agree, so long as it's done well!  I love sci-fi as the scope is unlimited and with where this franchise and story arc is now it has the potential to go in many different ways.

Why not?  As long as they tie up the relevant arcs - Prometheus I'm looking at you ;) lol

@MuzzleNZ

You could be right. Looking at other things makes me wonder a little though.

According to IMDb , RS is filming a movie, has two in preproduction and seven titles announced not including an AC sequel. That seems like a pretty full plate to continue the series much further considering age perhaps. If all of these titles are green lit, it almost seems like he might have to pass on the baton to someone else for the series to continue.

Denis Villeneuve perhaps? A little obvious perhaps, but his work to date is impressive and Ridley obviously trusts him.

I think that it should have stopped at Alien 3. Ripley had been fighting this alien against the corporation that was out there to get her because they wanted the Xeno. The way that it ended with Ripley throwing herself into the fire so the corporation would not be able to get the Xeno from her was a great way to end it because then there was no other way out. Once the corporation would get its hands on the Xeno it would run amok and be a danger for human lives (something that became understood) so Ripley did what she understood was right as a big F- you to WY. The tone of the movie was good and the conclusion makes sense to end the alien story.

Unfortunately, someone decided to make Alien Resurrection and even though it has some good things about it simply lacks because of something even though I can’t say exactly what that is. Maybe there was too much unintended comedy there (one line was: who did you expect? Santa claus?) but I don’t think that it fits an alien movie that well. The way the environment was made just didn’t look natural, I am not good at describing this but if you compare it to the first three movies you clearly see a difference. The aliens look like they are made with a type of skin that looks like big black bags of plastic that you use for taking out the garbage in. The Ripley clone could have been interesting but at the same time it looks like an idea that would fail 90% of the time. The newborn just looks bad. Winona Ryder was interesting as Call but that was all that it had to offer.

I love the idea of 3 and 4 as dream sequences, then Alien 5 dealing with W-Y acquisition of Xeno/engineer technology. 

I do agree Alien 3 wraps things up just fine...although bleek, and depressing how it begins with killing off Newt and Corp. Hicks, I do think its a good end to the ripley saga, but making 3 and 4 dreams is a really cool and creative way to extend the universe IMO. I think that the big differences with 3+4 and Alien+Aliens really lends itself to 3+4 being dreams, or more like nightmares!

As far as extending story on Ripleys end, I am confused on why he has said there are two more after Covenant, I dont see why we cant tell the whole prequel story with Prometheus>Covenant>III? This is mainly based on my fear that they are trying to start over with a new trilogy ignoring Prometheus, but really that doesnt seem to be the case so I should just let that fear go haha... 

For me, and I see others feel the same way, as long as they do a good job tying together all the arcs, I'm ready to see as many good scifi movies they can make out of this franchise, whether its with Newt in the future idk but its the quality of the stories that I care about. I think its important they explain everything while somehow leaving that which is more interesting as  mystery still in tact. The engineers and Xenos should be explained to a point, and then hint at a few possibilities, maybe leaning towards one or two being the most likely...

I think the franchise will end when Scott connects the Prometheus path with Alien (if Scott will live that long).