In a new interview, Ridley Scott muses that the Alien franchise should be on par with the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Scott helmed the first Alien installment in 1979, which famously starred Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, along with Tom Skerritt as Dallas, Ian Holm as Ash, and many others. Alien opened to near-universal acclaim and became a success at the worldwide box office. James Cameron took over and released the sequel Aliens in 1986 and once again, the movie was met with critical and box office success, but for many, 20th Century Fox exploited the franchise at every chance they could after the release of the sequel.

Though the Alien franchise is huge, it's nowhere near the incredible successes of Star Wars and Star Trek. For instance, Star Wars: The Last Jedi recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office, three weeks after its initial release. Alien: Covenant on the other hand, ended up with $240 million, which is still good, but nowhere near the franchises of Star Trek and Star Wars. The entire Alien franchise has grossed around $1.5 billion total, which again, is still a great success.

While speaking with the Toronto Sun to promote All the Money in the World, Ridley Scott briefly discussed Alien: Covenant as well as the next step in the prequel series. While speaking about the next step, the director revealed that he thought that the Alien franchise should be up in the ranks of mega Hollywood sci-fi franchises. He had this to say.

"There's no reason why Alien should now not be on the same level for fans as Star Trek and Star Wars. So I think the next step as to where we go is, do we sustain the Alien (series) with the evolution of the beast or do we reinvent something else? I think you need to have an evolution on this famous beast because he's the best monster ever, really."

Alien is one of the biggest sci-fi properties in history, but it's definitely not on the same level as some of the others. However, it does not seem that the Alien franchise was handled with as much care as the aforementioned sci-fi heavy hitters. When asked about the possibility of more Alien movies, Ridley Scott said that they'd be dumb not to make more. He explains.

"I would like to; they're crazy if they don't. David is a fantastic villain. I love what (Michael Fassbender) did in Covenant. But it's f$%!ing hard, dude. We lifted Alien out of a ditch and made Prometheus."

The Alien franchise currently includes six main installments as well as two spin-off movies and multiple adaptations in various other forms of media. The franchise even has its own dedicated day on April 26th, just like Star Wars. Looking at the box office numbers shows a different story when trying to put the Alien franchise in the ranks of Star Trek and Star Wars. While it seems like it would be easy to come out with another smash Alien movie or spin-off, fans are just as critical as Star Wars fans, which along with a plethora of other Alien projects, has resulted in less than stellar numbers at the box office.

It seems that Ridley Scott would like to jump back in and helm another Alien installment, but the future of the franchise is currently unknown now that Disney has acquired the rights from 20th Century Fox. However, Disney's Bob Eiger has revealed that the company is looking into future R-rated movies under the mouse house umbrella. Will Ridley Scott return to a new Alien movie under the Disney brand? Only time will tell, but for now it looks highly unlikely. You can read more of what Ridley Scott had to say about the Alien franchise success via The Toronto Sun.