Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott and released in 2012, was a prequel to the sci-fi horror classic Alien. But you might not know that if you weren't paying close attention because, y'know, Alien isn't in the title (it also isn't a movie all about the iconic Xenomorphs).
Maybe that's why the movie formerly known as Prometheus 2 is now called Alien: Paradise Lost, according to an interview Ridley Scott did with HeyUGuys.
While doing an interview for his latest film, The Martian, Scott drops the new Alien knowledge nonchalantly.
"Word is of course you've got more than one Prometheus sequel in the works," the interviewer says. "I was wondering if that was the case and if we can expect the franchise to connect up to the Alien franchise."
Scott barely lets the guy finish before saying, "Well actually, really, it's going to be called Alien: Paradise Lost. So Prometheus 2 isn't really going to be, it's going to be called Alien: Paradise Lost now."
If the title sounds familiar, rest assured that it's not a coincidence. "You know the poem?" Scott asks, referencing the classic John Milton book. "It sounds intellectual but there's a similarity to it, and that's where it stops."
That title fits well with the philosophical tons of the original Prometheus, which began to ask the very big question of "Where did we (humans) come from? Who made us?" There are a lot of spiritual aspects to that question, and Paradise Lost deals with many of those religious themes. Scott discusses some of that (as well as his plans for future Promethus -- now Alien? -- movies in an interview with Deadline).
As far as anyone knows, this doesn't affect Neil Blomkamp's Alien movie, which is currently scheduled for a 2017 release.
