2025 was a relatively quiet year for Ridley Scott after 2024 brought him back to the colosseum for the controversial legacy sequel, Gladiator II. Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for his performance as Maximus in the first Gladiator movie, was famously left out of the sequel, and he hasn’t been shy about expressing his discontent with this. Through his Scott Free producing banner, Scott remained involved in several big movies and TV shows in 2025, but the only thing he directed was a single episode of Dope Thief, the Apple TV crime thriller show that has been canceled after one season. After last directing a sci-fi movie back in 2017 with Alien: Covenant, Scott is finally set to return to the genre he helped popularize with The Dog Stars, the new post-apocalyptic thriller led by Josh Brolin and Jacob Elordi.
The Dog Stars was originally set to be released earlier this year in March, but only a few months before its premiere, it was pushed back to August to give the post-production team time to get it up to the levels fans expect of a Scott Free production. Right now, The Dog Stars is scheduled to be released on the same day as one of Netflix’s biggest blockbusters of the year, The Whisper Man. Scott’s new sci-fi epic and Netflix’s new horror thriller are coming out on August 28, but only The Dog Stars is coming to theaters — The Whisper Man will be released directly to Netflix. Only time will tell if both releases coming out on the same day will affect The Dog Stars‘ potential at the box office, but Scott is overdue for a box office hit after his last few movies underperformed.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Is Ridley Scott Involved in ‘Alien: Earth’ Season 2?
Ridley Scott and Scott Free productions continue to be involved in producing Alien: Earth Season 2, which is now in production under writer and creator Noah Hawley (Fargo). Hulu has not set an official release date for Alien: Earth Season 2, but it’s a safe bet that it will be released before the end of 2027. Peter Dinklage has officially joined the cast of Alien: Earth Season 2, along with Jerome Flynn — the duo played long-time friends Tyrion Lannister and Bron on all eight seasons of Game of Thrones.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of The Dog Stars, which hits theaters everywhere on August 28.
