Although he has directed only two installments of the franchise, James Cameron has been synonymous with “The Terminator” series and is currently working on a new seventh chapter. Of course, while he’s never helmed more than one film in the “Alien” franchise, Cameron’s “Aliens” sequel is still widely regarded as one of the saga’s high-water marks.
Either way, don’t expect him to ever return to the xenomorph hive. In a conversation on the “Just Foolin’ About” with Michael Biehn podcast, Cameron and Biehn (who co-starred in “Aliens” with Sigourney Weaver) strolled down memory lane about their work on the film and, in the meandering way these chats tend to go, drifted into talking about the franchise at large. Cameron sounded oddly affectionate about the series’ evolving DNA — right up until he pivoted into a hard no.
“It’s interesting,” Cameron said. “The new ‘Alien Earth’ is pretty good. And they’ve got a lot of the DNA from Ridley’s film, from ours, and also from [David] Fincher’s as well. Some of those aggressive POVs.”
He took a similar tack when discussing Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus”, offering a measured nod rather than a sweeping endorsement. “Yeah, I’ve seen it,” Cameron said. “I like parts of it. I think it’s inventive. It’s different. I feel Ridley’s more…” He didn’t finish the thought, but still gave faint praise to ‘Romulus.’ “Fede did something interesting as well,” he said. “I particularly like the scene where they’re weightless, floating in between the globs of floating alien acid, you know, which is like pretty nightmarish and well done.”
When the conversation drifted toward the deep-sixed Neil Blomkamp’ Alien 5’ film that Ridley Scott had blocked, Cameron didn’t engage in the lore or the blame game, but he also didn’t dismiss the filmmaker. “I don’t know anything about that,” he said. “I know Neil, at a remove, and I have corresponded a bit, but I don’t know the details of that one. But he’s a very inventive.” Cameron then extended the obvious what-if: “Yeah, he probably would have done something interesting.”
Despite his mostly charitable assessment of the other films, then came the turn — abrupt, final, and delivered with the kind of blunt certainty Cameron rarely softened. “Yeah, you couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to that franchise there. It’s sort of almost become fan-driven,” he admitted.
Cameron didn’t elaborate on that last remark, but it read like a blunt, overriding verdict on the very franchise he’d just been praising in pockets. He could admire the craft, even tip his cap to a standout sequence or two, but the larger enterprise clearly left a bad taste — a sense that the series had splintered into so many competing lanes, and become so governed by expectation and legacy management, that the idea of stepping back in held zero appeal for him now.
Watch the whole conversation below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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