Alien: Covenant does not need a sequel when letting go of the prequel storyline would let the series explore new, more promising narrative pathways.

According to Alien: Covenant actor Guy Pearce, there may be no direct sequel to the 2017 Alien franchise outing on the way—and that could be a good thing for fans of the series. Released in 1979, Ridley Scott’s Alien was a “haunted house in space” sci-fi horror hit that propelled its director and leading lady Sigourney Weaver to superstardom. A huge hit with viewers and critics, Alien’s fusion of horror and sci-fi was innovative at the time and paved the way for later classics like John Carpenter’s The Thing and Predator.

However, the Alien franchise’s future in cinemas was a mixed bag despite the popularity of the first film in the series. It took seven years for a sequel to be released and, although James Cameron’s movie was a huge hit, Aliens was very different from Alien, and later sequels struggled to balance the action-forward appeal of Aliens with the claustrophobic small-scale horror of Alien. When the direct sequels Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection and not one, but two Alien Vs Predator movies failed to impress critics, the once-formidable franchise seemed doomed in the early 2010s.

However, Scott returned to the series in 2012 with the prequel Prometheus and, although some viewers found the movie’s world-building excessively ambitious and pretentious, on the whole Prometheus received solid reviews. Scott then followed this outing with a film that avoided the convoluted lore of Prometheus and offered more focus, more gore, and a faster pace: 2017’s Alien: Covenant, a significantly better Alien prequel. However, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant supporting star Guy Pearce recently stated he has heard nothing about a new direct sequel to the series happening any time soon and, as over four years have elapsed, it is fair to say that by now it is unlikely audiences would want a direct continuation of the prequel storyline. This, however, need not necessarily be a bad thing as, if there were ever a series that needed a reinvention, it is the Alien franchise.

How Alien Covenant Ended

While Alien: Covenant did manage to steer clear of many of the issues that plagued its predecessor, with less navel-gazing pseudo-philosophy and lengthy lapses into world-building, the movie’s central plot was almost as silly as that of Prometheus. Alien: Covenant’s main villain David has a dastardly plan for world domination that falls apart after a few minutes of contemplation. Namely, Michael Fassbender’s amoral android has been stranded on a planet for years, engineering new Xenomorph hybrids after killing off the planet’s entire indigenous population in a mass extinction event by dropping a slew of the titular monsters onto their population centers. It is a chilling metaphor for drone warfare that does not make an iota of sense when the credits roll and Katherine Waterson’s helpless heroine realizes she has accidentally handed David control of her ship and the humans on board in hypersleep, all of whom (along with her) will soon be turned into incubators for David’s growing Xenomorph army.

This is where the plan falls apart. Despite Alien: Covenant featuring some classic kills, the prequel’s ending misses the mark because it never explains how David intends to keep his Xenomorph army alive after they wipe out the populations of whole planets with their swarm attacks (indeed, he failed to do so before the movie began on the Engineer’s home planet). The question of why David wants to kill off entire worlds in the first place, outside of a vaguely nihilistic God complex, is never properly explored either and, despite Fassbender’s performances in both prequels garnering outsized praise, few long-time fans of the series have been clamoring for answers to these plot holes in the intervening years.

Why Its Too Late For A Covenant Sequel

There are numerous reasons that a direct sequel to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant would struggle to engage audiences, with one obvious issue being that the heroines of both movies have now been killed off by David offscreen. Prometheus heroine Elizabeth Shaw suffered an inglorious offscreen murder via medical experimentation at the hands of David sometime after the movie ended, and the last shot of Alien: Covenant makes it clear that the same fate is in store for that movie’s protagonist, meaning another sequel would need to introduce a third star who likely would end up in the same situation. Not only that, but too many years have passed for a direct continuation, and audiences aren't connected to the story anymore (or, at least, audiences are even less connected to the story than they were in 2017 when few viewers were calling for a Prometheus sequel).

The fact that there has been no news of an Alien: Covenant sequel, meanwhile, despite the movie’s impressive performance with both critics and the box office, means there is precious little sign of studios wanting to continue the storyline either. Much like how Alien 3's dark and bleak tone effectively ended the original saga and many viewers felt Alien: Resurrection was an even more unnecessary addition to the series, Alien: Covenant’s brutally bleak coda left viewers with no reason to think that the next outing would be a compelling continuation of the franchise's story. Thus, Fassbender’s David would be better off left as a two-movie wonder, and the Alien movies should be allowed to expand in more inventive and interesting directions going forward.

Alien's Current Future Is More Exciting Than Covenant 2

With an upcoming TV series from famed Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley and a blank slate in terms of where another movie could go, the franchise should leave Alien: Covenant and the attendant David storyline in the past. Even the kindest write-ups of Scott’s prequels criticized their attempts at profundity, whereas Hawley already promised his Alien TV series will return to the satirical roots of the franchise and lampoon the greedy corporate interests of Weyland-Yutani instead of waxing lyrical about the origins of the universe. This sort of relevant pointed social commentary could bring back the verve and inventive horror of the first two films in the Alien franchise, eschewing the lesser elements of Alien: Covenant while still staying true to the spirit of the series as a whole.

More: Alien: Why Bringing the Xenomorph to Earth Can Save The Franchise