Re: Paradise (Prometheus Sequel)
I don't think it matters. It's not necessary to explain the outbreak on LV-233, how it occurred, and why they have not been back there in 2000 years. It happened, and reasons why they abandoned it are obvious.
Regarding what I would like to see in Paradise - David was very cruel and condescending to the humans on the Prometheus, especially Shaw, but not so much Weyland, his creator. He did say he wanted him dead and to be free, yes, but he also appeared to be enamored with him. He had a revelation of sorts at the end when Shaw wanted to go to where the Engineers came from, so I would like to see that dynamic explored, and a completely different character arc for David. He sees another facet of Shaw, and possibly humanity, and is now free of his creator, and the restrictions of his orders for this mission, so there are lots of interesting places that character arc could now go.
What I think would be less interesting is that when Shaw reasembles him, he then continues the same bad guy behavior from Prometheus.
As far as where the story goes, this needs to be a meet-your-maker story for Shaw, challenging her faith, a dynamic and revelatory story for David about what it is to have free will, and an exploration of who exactly the Engineers are and why they are doing what they are doing (or did).
Shaw is in a highly advanced ship that was barely explored in the film. All we know about these ships are that they have a very tough shell, still work after 2000 years, complex navigation, cryo sleep chambers, and that they apparently crash very easily
The capabilities of that ship and what else is inside it could be very interesting to explore, as far as a coolness factor. It is also interesting to note that Shaw has some leverage to use against the Engineers. She has a ship that may be fully loaded with those ampules of death, as the crashed one had.
There were five stars in the cluster of the "invitation". They found the most habitable moon with LV-223, which apparently was just an installation to store ampules full of the nasty stuff. The Engineers home world is probably in one of those other systems, and Damon implied the Prometheus may have been in the wrong place to start with. This other place may not be the "paradise" Ridley is referring to, since the Engineers must have a creator as well, and Ridley said it is obviously not God. I like his description of the Engineers as "dark angles". An exploration of who the Engineers are and where they come from would be very bold and interesting, and Ridley's suggestion that their paradise is probably more like our hell is going to make for some dark story telling. Why they do what they do, and why they intended to destroy (or remake) us, if that is what they were really planning on doing 2000 years ago, needs to be fully explained.
Getting to more formally meet the Engineers as real characters who communicate with Shaw and David is something really I want to see, as well as exploring their culture, ideas on creation and their views on their own creator, or even worship. Potential for some really hard, intellectual sci-fi story telling here, but it will have to be blended with some good action and horror elements to sell it to the studio and make it dynamic. I really don't want to see any more xenos and face huggers in another film either, EVER, but they did open that door with the sculpture on the wall of the temple, and showing a blended version of one being born at the end. If they are simply another creation of the Engineers, it is odd their image would be on a temple wall. That temple may have been meant for humans, or the Aliens themselves. The giant head implies the Engineers were the ones being worshipped here. Perhaps the original version of the Alien species are what created the Engineers? There could be many reasons for them having that sculpture on the wall of that temple, but I would rather they never go back to this and leave it open. Ridley is right. The Aliens are done.
