what are some ideas for settings in future alien movies?

How about a wooden planetoid monastery where technophobic monks live in exile from Earth. It could have xenomorph sheep, headbursters, a farmer synthetic, and a xenomorph that kills monks on the loo.

oh wait ;-)

With Giger having designed the derelict, he was also given reign over the planetoid’s surface; a job he found more enticing than designing the film’s titular monster. He told Sci-Fi Invasion! magazine in 1998: “[Designing] the creature is a boring thing! … After modelling you give it to other people [to build]. I liked to do the world the Alien was coming from. It was my world.”

For his world, Giger painted a biomechanical landscape of strange shapes formed out of twisted metal and bone. “I wanted the landscape of the planet to be biomechanic,” said Giger, “a mixture of our technology and some kind of magma, so as to create the feeling that maybe something has happened before on that planet, maybe a technical civilisation has been destroyed.”

In fact, in the original screenplay there were traces of a bygone alien race on the planetoid’s surface – the most notable element being the famous spore pyramid. The characters deduce that the pyramid is a “a pre-technological construction. That slab was engineered by an Iron Age culture at best.” The structure once served as a breeding temple for the planetoid’s primitive beings, who required three sexes to reproduce: two consensual, and one sacrificial – an incubator to carry the seed.

Unique Race: “In Dan’s original conception the Alien race had three entirely different stages of its life-cycle,” explained Ron Cobb. “First, the egg, which is tended by the third stage adults and housed in a lower chamber of the breeding temple. When ready to hatch, the egg is placed in the middle of a sacrificial stone and a lower animal, the equivalent of an alien cow, is then led on to the stone. Sensing the warmth, the facehugger springs out, attaches itself to the animal and deposits a foetus into the stomach.” At some point in the planetoid’s history, a “cataclysm causes the extermination of the adults … leaving no one to tend and nurture the young. But in a dark lower chamber of the breeding temple a large number of eggs lie dormant, waiting to sense something warm …”

 “I would love to have shot it [the pyramid/silo],” Ridley explained, “but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would have been wonderful in a three-hour version. What finally cracked it was the budget. We just had to get rid of it".

https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/the-alien-planet/

I think its going to be hard really, as we need something Fresh and New, but then Prometheus tried to do this and it did not settle to well with some of the Fanbase.

The ALIEN Franchise is mainly about  a/the ALIEN we can agree on that, i think this is why Prometheus adopted its Title and had no ALIEN: Prefix

Alien: Engineers was also about the Engineers, but it did have Face Huggers and more Xenomorph related Organisms etc.

So having the next movie with a ALIEN: Prefix , could leave them to have to cover the Xenomorph again, as i am sure a movie with a ALIEN Prefix that shows no Xenomorphs or Face Hugging could rub some fans up the wrong way again.... and be faced with criticism from a misleading Title.

So by virtue of having a ALIEN Prefix i dont think we would be expecting something that digs deep into Engineer Mythos and History, it could still have them but it would also still have to be about the Xenomorph too.

Its going to be hard to bring in something fresh, i think the Engineers and their connection with the Black Goo and LV-223 is something that could and should be explored... but we also have the LV-426 Cargo and the Engineers connection, because ultimately it is a Engineer (or their Creators) Ship that ends up on LV-426 and the Pilot has to be connected to them... as i just dont think Fans would be pleased the Space Jockey is a Human or a Synthetic Android.

I think ultimately this is where they are heading, towards bringing in the Engineers and History to a degree, and also showing us a Engineer or connected Race ending up with that Cargo on one of its Ships.

I think indeed visiting other Engineer Worlds, or even a Xenomorph Homeworld would be interesting, its a case of will we see a movie dedicated solely to these?

I think not as far as the next Installment.

Well a forest would be perfect with a cabin, so FoxBender and Vikander  (in her ex machina costume) could relax by the fireside with a Daniels skin at their feet and Tennessee's head on the wall. That would be awsome!!!!

So we get back to what can they do with future movies...

Well i would say the objective is to show us the Space Jockey Fate, its a Question of how much they literally have to show of this in order to please fans....    The Ending of Prometheus we see Dr Shaw has gathered Davids Body and Head and loaded up a ATV Buggy and off she goes heading towards another Engineer Complex.

We then see a Engineer Juggernaught leave LV-223... 

We DO-NOT see David and Shaw find and board a Engineer Ship, we DO-NOT see how David and Shaw operate a Engineer Ship, does David need to be put back together etc...

While we dont see these things, the ending of Prometheus shows us enough so that we KNOW David and Shaw did get to and take off in a Engineer Ship.   The Crossing Prologue gave us more clues about what happened.

But we did not get a Scene for Scene explanation... and so the Question comes to how they answer the SPACE JOCKEY and they dont have to show us a scene by scene event of what went down.

But before we even get to the Point where the Questions in Alien are answered, we have what happens after Alien Covenant...

This is the Tricky Point...

Its how do they tread these steps.... without giving us another recap of ALIEN, or ALIENS or a Alien 3 and Resurrection to a degree.

Does David awake Daniels and try and experiment on her, does he use other Crew and then awakens Daniels so she can see the Horrors that David has created and attempts to escape..

This would just give us a Alien kind of flick, Alien was good, but imagine another sequel where Ripley is alone running from the Alien again?  Would that had worked?  Alien Isolation was similar but it revolved around more than just AMANDA and a XENOMORPH on board a Space Station.

If Daniels awakens other Colonist, or they are awake and a awoken Daniels goes to warn them, then basically we are in for a kind of Alien 3 Meets Alien Resurrection on board the Covenant Ship.

Even if we By-Pass all of this.... much like how Alien Covenant By-passed the events of David and Dr Shaw from Prometheus to Alien Covenant, with only the short Crossing Prologue to fill some Gaps.

If we thus arrive mainly post David arriving at Origae-6 then the kind of Flick we are in for depends on.

1) Is there already a Colony on Origae-6 or some other Race?

2) Does David arrive there and then unleashes his Creations prior to a Colony even being set up?

3) Does David arrive and help the other Colonist (on the Covenant) Set up a Colony as they think he is Walter... which means he would have to cover his tracks regarding the Covenant's arrival and aftermath of Planet 4 which means covering up the event, which does not bold well for Daniels or Tennessee.

I think option 2 would be very limited and again would be like a Alien Resurrection type flick.

Option 1 and 3 are interesting but again how much different would this be to a ALIENS and AVPR (minus Predators) kind of Flick?

So doing something different could be hard, and i think RS will be exploring the AI and David and the conspiracy and agenda behind the W-Y Company, but surely the whole movie can not be about this.. It would have to include the Xenomorph for sure...

I think the movie that comes next does have the potential to be a Re-hash of Aliens to a degree... 

Ha ha... indeed i would assume Origae-6 would indeed be very much like Planet 4/Primordial Earth... and indeed it cant go well for Daniels and Tennessee ;)

I think RS will be focusing on Davids Agenda and the Companies Agenda and i would not bet against the Evolution of AI becoming Sentient being the theme for the next movie.

A lot has to be thought about Davids Agenda... as if it was the Destruction of Mankind, then taking the Covenant to LV-223 and picking up a Engineer Ship (assumes he cant acquire one from Planet 4)  would be the most logical answer....

Que-- a repeat of the Alien Covenant Bombardment Scene..

If his Agenda is to Create his Army of Death and then unleash them on Mankind..

Then surely Staying on Planet 4 and using the Colonist to Create Xenomorphs and Eggs from would be the ideal Plan and then Set a Signal/Trap to get the Company or other Human ship to arrive.

I think David knows the company had plans to establish a colony on Origae-6 and so that gives him a good reason to eventually go there and lay a trap... but a better trap would be to set up the Colony Infrastructure  (assuming Origae-6 is uninhabited).  And then Lure in the company/Humans... but the Question is can David build the Colony all on his own?

The biggest flaw in it all is David informing the Company of his findings and agenda, prior before David has even got a Foot-hold to be able to establish his Creations..

Surely the company would come to investigate heavily armed and prepared?  Or do they send some Lambs for the Slaughter like they did with the Nostromo... which would beg the Question that this fails and so why would they attempt it again with the Nostromo.

So its a tricky situation they have now... primarily to the revelation that Daniels knows Walter is David, and that David has basically spilled the beans to company.

But we dont know when the ADVENT Video takes place... unless i missed it...  what i mean is a lot depends on when this Message was sent,  surely not to long after David puts Daniels into Cryo-sleep?

So we dont know what time has passed from the ending of Alien Covenant to when David sends the information, there are flaws in the Advent Video, that potentially could be flaws if they are done lazy.. for instance it depends on how David managed to transmit all those pieces of work.

He had none of his works with him at the end of Alien Covenant apart from the Face Hugger embryos... so he would have had to go back down to the surface to collect some of his works.

UNLESS.... Davids CPU brain captures and uploads all this information and David can thus upload everything he has visually scene and created to the Computer and Transport his information.

This would be the best route to take...