With Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel now officially known as Alien: Covenant, the director has revealed that this follow-up will be one of three Prometheus-sequels-cum-Alien-prequels.

Speaking at a Sydney press conference, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Scott explained, “It’s a very complex story. It’s an evolution of what I first did with Prometheus 1. Prometheus 1 was borne out of my frustration that on Alien 1 in 1979 – I only did one as I don’t normally do sequels – I was amazed that in the three that followed that no one asked the question ‘Why the alien, who made it made it and why?’ Very basic questions. So I came up with the notion of Prometheus 1, which starts to indicate who might have made it and where it came from.”

He continued, “So I’m now going to the next one, which is the next evolution directly connected with the first one, which was this Shaw, when she replaced Michael Fassbender in two pieces, and we’ll kind of pick it up there and it will evolve. When that’s finished, there’ll be another one and then another one which will gradually drive into the back entrance of the film in 1979. So in other words, why was this space jockey there and why did he have an alien inside him? And those questions will be answered.”

Do those particular questions need answering? Do we really need another three movies? Can we not just have Neill Blomkamp’s indefinitely-on-hold Aliens sequel that focuses on Ripley and Hicks?

At present, Alien: Covenant is set to start production in March ahead of an October 6th, 2017 release.