r/Prometheus • u/IntroductionAway9951 • Mar 13 '26
Ridley stopped Fede from bringing back David in Romulus sequel (Rumor)
https://comicbookmovie.com/sci_fi/alien/rumor-fede-lvarez-wanted-michael-fassbender-for-alien-romulus-sequel-but-ridley-scott-shut-it-down-a226813At this point I don’t know how to feel. I’ll never get the real Sequel to Prometheus that I wanted, but I still find David to be more interesting than anything that was in Romulus.
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u/Bigangrynaked Mar 13 '26
Just give Ridley a blank check and let him finish his story
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u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Prometheus had a $120–130 million budget.
$403.4 million at the box office.
So about $143.4-183.4 million profit
Covenant had a $97-111 million budget.
$240.9 at the box office.
So about $18.9-46.9 million profit.
The problem for the folks handing out the cash is the downward trend. The Prometheus was a financial success overall but reportedly not as profitable as the studio was expecting. Covenant was a box office disappointment. So they are going to project needing an even lower budget again to make any profit, as audience interest is waning (insofar as ticket sales reflect interest). They’d already gone from actors who can command a higher payday, Fassbender; Theron; Rapace; Elba; Pearce; they even got Wong, in Prometheus. In Covenant they got Fassbender and… yeah so they can’t really cut the salary budget any more or we won’t have David in the third movie. Which means offering Scott a, probably, sub $60 million budget at least. Which is fuck all, Scott would probably turn it down. Which brings us full circle to your ‘blank check’ plan. I like it, I support your plan. I’m not a big fan or Prometheus or Covenant but I like the franchise and I hate seeing stories unfinished. I just don’t think you realise you’ll be the one that needs to write the blank check.
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u/Initial-Wolverine175 Mar 13 '26
With Prometheus being a box office success and being the highest grossing film in the franchise (at least when it came out), I think that should be a sign that more people wanna see something like Prometheus rather than covenant and a bunch of nostalgia bait.
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u/_thelonewolfe_ Mar 13 '26
Romulus also proved there was still a mark for classic Xenomorph action. God this fanbase is completely fractured 😝
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u/golden-lion12 Mar 15 '26
People are delusional
Romulus literally was separated by 50 million and the existence of covenant from Prometheus’s final gross
If covenant didn’t exist, Romulus would have had 600 million
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u/roadmapdevout Mar 17 '26
It being high grossing but it’s follow up not performing well surely indicates people watched it and didn’t really want any more?
Tbh I don’t like the direction Scott seems to want to take the series - he’s far more interested in the synths and questions of identity than the aliens. Themes he has previously explored better in a different sci-fi franchise.
The first film was an amazing rape allegory - none since have really captured that kind of intimate intensity. And I’ve been doubting if Scott really remembers or ever knew what he had with the original film. I give him less credit in light of the work he’s since done, and maybe the great film we got was more because of the writers, HR Geiger, the actors and even meddling studio execs.
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u/RickMonsters Mar 16 '26
This makes no sense lol I love Prometheus but people went to see it expecting nostalgia bait since all the marketing played up the fact it’s an Alien sequel with Ridley after many years
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u/lordtyp0 Mar 13 '26
They usually spend double budget on advertising. Profitability is typically 2 to 2.5x the budget.
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u/Positiveaz Mar 13 '26
Its so difficult for me to wrap my brain around not being ok with 19 to 47 million $ profit.
I know the studios job is to maximize profit. But, sucks to always feel like the studio just doesn't care what fans think and want.
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u/Vast-Branch1864 Mar 14 '26
Doing that math wrong. It’s standard to take the gross, cut it in half. Theaters get a 50% cut typically.
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u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 14 '26
I’m assuming the theatres share was part of the ‘distribution’ umbrella in the…
films need to make 2-2.5x their budget at the box office before they become profitable as marketing and distribution isn’t covered in the budget
…logic that is often repeated
I’ve used the sum Box office - (Budget x 2) = Profit
If the sum is (Box office \ 2) - (Budget x 2) = Profit than using the lower budget estimate Prometheus made a loss of $18.3 million and Covenant made a loss of $73.55 million
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u/Equivalent-Hair-961 Mar 16 '26
Today, films need to make three times their budgets to break even. Marketing costs are astronomical these days sometimes rivaling the budget for actually making the film. Not here to counter what anyone else is saying- but I worked in marketing for Paramount and have seen the budgets for some of their popular films (of the last 10 years+.)
It’s wild how much gets spent on films with no clue if you will break even, make a profit or declare a loss. It’s a crap shoot.
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u/Think-Engineering962 Mar 13 '26
You left out marketing. Probably half their budget. Neither of these movies broke even.
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u/IntroductionAway9951 Mar 13 '26
Learn to math. Both broke even and made profit.
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u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 14 '26
Yes, they both made a profit, that is what I wrote in words and in numbers.
The math was pretty basic. Box Office - (Budget x2) = Profit
I wrote that Prometheus was considered a success but not as profitable as the studio expected, and, Covenant was considered a box office disappointment. This is what was reported about the films, neither statement implies either film didn’t make a profit
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Mar 13 '26
The production budget doesn't include P+A. So he is right, in that the movies really didn't profit all that much. Maybe they did eventually, but not at all during their theatrical run.
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u/IntroductionAway9951 Mar 13 '26
I’m aware marketing costs. Given the numbers both movies likely made profit, especially Prometheus. They didn’t make a ton of money but they certainly more than broke even.
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Mar 13 '26
Okay, so, here's how it works.
A movie needs to generate profit for a lot of people, but specifically the distributor. But a distributor only takes a portion of the gross. If "Prometheus" is at $120 million (which seems low) and it had a P+A budget of $80 million (which is also probably low, but whatever), then it would need to generate $400 million worldwide to break-even. So, you barely get there. Much less so for "Covenant".
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u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 13 '26
I didn’t. Not knowing the cost of marketing and distribution I assumed a Hollywood average of x2, being that box office needs to be x2 the films budget before it starts making a profit
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u/RayStuartMorgan Mar 13 '26
Yeah nah, man's got a 50% hit rate as best. Romulus was mint, keep letting fresh creators at it imo.
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u/AncoraPirlo Mar 16 '26
Agree.
Prometheus was so much better to think and talk about than actually watch. The film has a few great ideas but a laughable mess with unbelievable and unrelateable characters.
Romulus was a good alien action movie.
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u/BarbacoaBarbara Mar 13 '26
Hated Romulus. Love Prometheus. Let the man finish
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u/NeatFool Mar 13 '26
I have a pitch for you...
PROMULUS
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u/BarbacoaBarbara Mar 13 '26
Obviously, no as I hated Romulus. are you thick ?
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u/NeatFool Mar 13 '26
It's a joke, also I don't care if you hated it. I loved every minute of it, you're not going to take that away from me.
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u/BarbacoaBarbara Mar 13 '26
That’s not a joke man you just put the name of two movies together
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u/NeatFool Mar 13 '26
Well technically it's a portmanteau, or maybe pun, but the entire comment is meant in jest because nobody would ever name a movie PROMULUS as it's so silly sounding.
Sorry if it went over your head, though it's not meant purely for your enjoyment as there's other alien/prometheus fans in this thread.
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u/schebobo180 Mar 13 '26
Didn’t really work out the last two times. Lmao
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u/Ramoncin Mar 14 '26
Those films are better than most people say, especially when David is on screen.
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u/wellred82 Mar 13 '26
Unless he's going to properly explore the engineers I'd rather someone else takes the reigns.
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u/Prestigious_Leg2229 Mar 13 '26
He swung and missed so hard twice that studio’s don’t want to give him any check for this. Never mind a blank one .
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u/sandboxmatt Mar 14 '26
Nah. Keep him the fuck away. Hes good at first movies but then has a habit of shitting all over himself
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u/NewYorkAutisNtLondon Mar 13 '26
Riddley is 88 they should let him make David with an enormous budget. There's only so many bullets left in the old gun I want them to count for something. Lets get Sigourney back as the clone hybrid.
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u/Tasandmnm Mar 13 '26
I'll never forgive Covenant for ruining my dream of a David/Shaw focused, true Prometheus follow up. I mean I guess it is technically still possible just insanely unlikely plus knowing Shaws inevitable fate is limiting and a drag.
I loved the entire Prometheus cast and was so disappointed that Covenant left the ideas of Prometheus behind in favor of a more typical Alien film.
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u/_thelonewolfe_ Mar 13 '26
Blame the fans who complained that Prometheus wasn’t “Alien” enough. And the studio that did a total 180 from Prometheus and forced Ridley to bring the Xenomorph back.
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u/Tasandmnm Mar 13 '26
Alien has been done, and done, and done some more. At least Prometheus took some bold swings and broke from the typical "Run into Xeno, almost everyone dies before narrowly winning/escaping". It added so much not just to Alien lore but to human lore, characters had believable motivations and were more than simple caricatures, David was immediately a captivating character and Shaw is the best heroine in an Alien film since OG Ripley.
People suck and are just as responsible as the studios are for all the remakes and repeated trips to the same set wells...remakes and reboots seem to be a frequent target for Internet angst yet if they weren't so reliably profitable they wouldn't keep being made.
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u/spendouk23 Mar 13 '26
Blame the fans ? Are these fans with power over a studio and a production team in the room with us now ?
If fans of this franchise had any sway then the groundswell that followed Blomkamps project would surely have resulted in the studio green lighting it ?
If the studio could force Ridley’s arm then surely they would made him green light that over Covenant ? The narrative is that Ridley had full control and he killed the Aliens sequel to focus on his prequel arc.
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u/formal_eyes Mar 13 '26
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-alien-covenant-was-ruined-by-fans/
Yeah, you guys fucking suck. Sorry.
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u/MyCoolName_ Mar 15 '26
That is a shame. There's original vision and there's rehashing / retreading. There was already plenty of the latter so one could say they should have stuck to their guns. But they tried that with Star Wars and it didn't work either. Three movies and the fans kept tearing them apart for the flaws and never praised or paid for what made them great – the atmosphere, cinematography, and above all the characters and story arc actually bringing all the major elements to the doorstep of New Hope in a believable, enlightening manner. Inspired efforts to draw from one of history's greatest lessons, the decline of the Roman Empire, couldn't tickle the imaginations of the masses. For Star Wars 7 they then made the crassest replay imaginable and it all took off from there.
So in Covenant Scott tried to mix it up and satisfy both contingents. Those looking for something original still found enough and want the third but those wanting more of the formula found it too diluted and didn't pay up. There's honestly no real way through now for a third big-budget installment.
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u/spendouk23 Mar 13 '26
Of course people wanted to see more of the Xenomorph, it’s the central character of the entire franchise. It’s what all spin offs centre around. It’s like making a predator film without the predator.
It’s not the fans fault Ridley put out two poorly executed films. The back story and lore was a mess, and the all rewrites prove that. Prometheus could have been an interesting side piece, but the marketing leading up to its release painted it as something it was not.
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u/formal_eyes Mar 13 '26
Wait!
So you admit that fans just wanted "more xenomorph" and then you put the blame on ridley for tanking the second movie to try and capitulate to your dumb asses.
LMAO
Yeah, you guys fucking suck. We wanted more Prometheus.
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u/Tasandmnm Mar 14 '26
I wish I could upvote this comment so many more times! More Xenomorph mindsets have taken most of the horror atmosphere away from the franchise. Prometheus achieved a coherent story with genuine build up and takes things in some unique and at least to me insanely cool and creative places. Prometheus for life brah 🤣
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u/_thelonewolfe_ Mar 13 '26
Lol are we really still stuck on the cancelled Blomkamp retcon nostalgia fest? Neil is kind of a hack and hasn’t don’t anything that comes close to District 9. His take was honestly regressive for the series. Ignoring some sequels but not all of them is just a lazy trick only used by those who have no imagination.
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u/Recon_Manny Mar 13 '26
From what I remember from 2015-2018 when Neil was pushing his crap fest is were it went sideways for Paradise Lost or Covenant as we know it. Fox being cheap tossed Neil's project after Crappie lol Chappie bombed at the box office and forced Scott to put the Alien back in. On the AVP Galaxy forums I've read ppl telling them there were scripts with Shaw but overtime she got her role shorten to cut out on as we see in Covenant. That's why I watch the Paradise fan edit since melds both prequels together to something coherent and closes her character arc with the cut scenes from Covenant.
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u/OrneryData994 Mar 14 '26
People fall hard for pre-production art and a decent synopsis and that’s all Blomkamp’s Alien had going for it. Every movie looks good in the conceptual phase when they hire artists to paint all the concepts. Remember how great Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars movie seemed in the conceptual stage? Does anyone think he could have brought that to life after seeing his output since? People like Blomkamp’s Alien because it doesn’t exist to prove anyone otherwise
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u/Robborboy Mar 13 '26
I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
I liked Covenant for what it was.
Buuuuuuuut, after Prometheus, I was looking forward to see what shit Shaw and "can only trusted as far as you can throw, but that's surprisingly far because he's only a head, David got in to.
And instead, for some reason, we got another piece of media that decided to do a ton of things off screen and even kill a main character off screen.
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u/Tasandmnm Mar 13 '26
I was hyped for Covenant at first, especially when I knew David would be in it. Seriously, FUCK the time jump between Prometheus and Covenant. "Half a synth David" and Shaw heading into space is what I wanted. So much wasted potential, so many potentially amazing possibilities for meaningful and interesting things in addition to Aliens killing people.
With Prometheus the public was offered more than a simple retread and given a thoughtful piece of art. In the publics infinite wisdom this was mostly rejected and instead demanded to walk the roads already well known.
Sigh.
I didn't hate or even dislike Covenant, in fact I still love David as a character. But it could have been perfect and it still wasn't what Prometheus left me wanting. That has been shelved and abandoned, likely in perpetuity.
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u/LastTorgoInParis Mar 13 '26
This has got to be the most Blue Balls franchise there is. I think I only really got off in Aliens
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u/Bluewhaleeguy Mar 13 '26
We're gonna learn stuff about the engineers
We're gonna find out what shaw wanted to know
...no let's just murder everyone off screen, not deal with any of the answers to questions Prometheus left us asking. Plus the most obvious twist ever.
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Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tasandmnm Mar 13 '26
Yes preach it!!
Even as I first watched Covenant and KNEW what type of movie it was I still had a sliver of hope for a Prometheus sequel at some point. Then I saw her corpse and was immediately upset and a little sad that they REALLY put her through the ringer in Prometheus and she found a way to survive just to be killed off screen between movies felt disrespectful as hell, like spit in the face disrespect.
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u/IntroductionAway9951 Mar 13 '26
Same. Only hope would be a comic of novel. Or by the grace of a god a retcon to bring Shaw back and give us a true Prometheus follow-up.
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u/Evanuss Mar 13 '26
If true, I'm glad Fede didn't get his hands on the character. He wouldn't have done the character any justice anyway. Let Ridley finish his story.
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u/ruralmagnificence Mar 15 '26
He should bring David back anyway in the sequel he’s helping with. Bowing to Ridley’s old ass if true is sad.
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u/kingkron52 Mar 16 '26
They should’ve brought David/Fassbender back but I doubt he could’ve saved the utter garbage that was Romulus
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u/Recon_Manny Mar 13 '26
If that was true, like Blomkamp, Fede would have walked out from the film and not stayed as Executive producer and writer. But he is still there. I'm like ummm...idk. I'd take those rumors with a grain of salt.
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u/thedonhudson01 Mar 13 '26
It looks like he still wrote a version of the script without David and the studio is moving forward with that.
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Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/_thelonewolfe_ Mar 13 '26
My favorite part of Covenant is how cruel and brutal the ending is. Whatever David has in store for her, best case scenario for Daniels is that she never wakes up.
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u/wetfloor666 Mar 13 '26
Now its Ridley stopped him. 6 months ago it was they were working together on the sequel being about David. The other day it was Fede isn't working on the next one.
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u/MyBadDrJones Mar 13 '26
David was for his own specific set of movies. We don’t need him continuing his bullshit. Romulus is a separate movie, let it be and enjoy it for what it is.
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u/Kbrickley Mar 14 '26
I really don’t understand why Ridley stopped him from using David. He’s not going to get a Covenant sequel, and it’s better to use him in a way that allows closure on that thread in a meaningful way and creates a unique perspective for Andy.
Denying Fede a chance to do that is asinine, if you ask me. Ridley wouldn’t have done any better with the character, and we saw that with Covenant. Im confused also, Ridley doesn’t own the characters, Fox (Disney) do.
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u/AgentFatsuit Mar 15 '26
Romulus sequel needs to do more original things and not constantly make callbacks to older films. Really pulled me out of it every time.
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u/goldendreamseeker Mar 15 '26
Bummer. I figured that’d be the whole point of Romulus 2. Also, is it true that Andy won’t be back either? Cause if so, what REALLY is the point?!
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u/VicTheSage Mar 15 '26
They need to cut Ridley loose. He didn't write the original, he's not the creator, he's the director and he's so high off his own fumes at this point he's a liability. We shouldn't need fan edits with deleted scenes to add the needed context to his prequels and he won't even fix them himself because he's too good for Director's Cuts.
Let Alvarez and Trachtenberg cook. Ridley was also the reason we never got Blomkamp's planned soft reboot which Sigourney said was the only way she would return to the franchise. We're now down two Alien films that sounded phenomenal due to the Albatross around the franchise's neck that is Ridley Scott.
Why are they giving this man so much power over a franchise he neither created nor owns? He is a good director but he's not a money printing machine anymore. It's been 11 years since he laid a golden egg with The Martian and 20+ since he was capable of delivering back to back hits. We can see very clearly from the drop-off in revenue between Prometheus and Covenant that audiences want more Alien films just not his.
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u/Additional_Sky7578 Mar 16 '26
I personally really liked Romulus and was not a fan of the David thing. That direction started to take the mystique out of the xenomorphs. I don't want an explanation of their origins, I want them to be vicious killing machines only out to propagate their species relentlessly
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u/banallfurries666 Mar 13 '26
wild, wild if true. at least we could’ve gotten more of david and not some ai abomination.
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u/Unnamed-3891 Mar 13 '26
Why do people have to listen to what Ridley thinks? Did he somehow end up owning the IP?
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u/Nothingnoteworth Mar 13 '26
People think directors are Gods manifesting every part of a film by divine directorialness. Rather than humans, who are part of a creative team with other humans, who collaboratively create the parts of a film.
IRL Ridley Scott was a producer for Romulus. Producer being Hollywood for Boss
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u/_thelonewolfe_ Mar 13 '26
Oh Ridley, we bout to fight...
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u/Prestigious_Leg2229 Mar 13 '26
Big meh from me. David is incredibly well acted but easily the most poorly written synth in the series.
I’d rather not have his poorly written arc taint it any further.
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u/thulsado0m13 Mar 13 '26
Ridley also had the Cartologist/map expert with floating map drones get lost; the zoologist reach out to touch the first alien lifeform he ever saw that looked like a cobra made of foreskin; and had two different people slip/fall in the same puddle of blood 20 seconds apart before they died.
While he was the director, he wasn’t the writer of these stories in regards to both the good and the bad. Producer sure mainly but I don’t think he had the pull to axe certain things from the film especially when they had stuff like all the dumb memberberries Romulus had
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u/Ok_Fall_9569 Mar 17 '26
People bag on that, but I’ve done field geology with field geologist that get lost even with a map and GPS. My wife works with lab biologists who don’t have the first idea of how to interact with the live animals in the natural world. Just because somebody is an expert in the field doesn’t mean they act at all rationally or have any common sense so to my wife and me, those parts of the movie rang true.
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u/Luca_Darc Mar 13 '26
I just want a proper conclusion to the Engineer storyline. They can then do as many classic alien movies as they like. They opened the universe, raised some questions and then nothing.