If it’s one thing Ridley Scott has gotten really good at over the years, it’s talking about future installments of the beloved franchise he started, Alien. Scott started publicly mulling over a potential sequel/prequel a full ten years before his divisive Prometheus was released in 2012. And almost immediately after that film came out, he was talking about another sequel, which wouldn’t see the light of day until five years later, when Alien: Covenant was released in 2017. While Covenant was designed as the second part of a trilogy, it underperformed at the box office, and Disney’s recent acquisition of Fox has further doubt on whether or not there would be subsequent films. Even Scott had been mostly quiet. Until now.

Scott talked to L.A. Times writer Justin Chang about all things Alien, and in doing so, couldn’t help but bring up the possibility of subsequent films.

“I still think there’s a lot of mileage in Alien, but I think you’ll have to now re-evolve,” Scott told Chang. “What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think.”

At the end of Alien: Covenant, evil android David (Michael Fassbender), posing as genial robot Walter (also Fassbender), incapacitated the crew of the Covenant, a ship meant to populate a distant world. David, who had begun experimenting with what would ultimately become the xenomorph DNA, then turned to the ship’s storage full of embryos. Clearly, however the alien creature that we know and love (and are scared to death of) came from David’s tinkering on this ship. But how? And why?

These are clearly the questions Scott sets out to answer at some point although whether or not he’ll get that chance remains a big question mark. Scott had shot most of his period revenge film The Last Duel, a potential Oscar contender and supposed Christmas release starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, before the global pandemic put a halt on production. He’s also got Gucci lined up after that with Lady Gaga starring. The filmmaker is currently 82 and it’s unclear how many years of active duty he’s got left in him. But hopefully he’ll have time to squeeze in one more Alien entry, even if it is tucked away in the Prometheus corner of that beloved universe.