"Alien" Japanese Theatrical Poster
Back in March of 2015, writer-director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) announced that his next movie would be an Alien (aka Alien 5) film. This exciting news came soon after Blomkamp shared some “personal” concept art/photos for an Alien movie that had been running around his mind.
The artwork – featuring the return of both Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn) – was a warm welcome to fans of the franchise, especially given the acclaim Blomkamp has received for his influential work.
Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel would basically ignore Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection: “I want this film to feel like it is literally the genetic sibling of Aliens, so it’s Alien, Aliens and then this film,” said the director. Both Weaver and Biehn confirmed that the will be reprising their roles as Ripley and Corporal Duane Hicks, respectively. The character of Newt, now 27-years-old, will return, although it has not been made clear if Carrie Henn will be reprising her role.
Ultimately, Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel was put on hold in an effort to avoid colliding with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus/Alien continuation, Alien: Covenant.
In a recent interview (via LFF), Weaver shed some light regarding Blomkamp’s Alien sequel: “Ridley asked Neill not to make our Alien ’til after Alien: Covenant/Prometheus 2. [Ridley] wanted his movie to shoot and be released first. But it’s an amazing script, and Neill and I are really excited about doing it. We’re doing other things until we can get going on that. I’d be really surprised if we didn’t do it, because it’s such a great script, and we love working together. So, it’s just going to take a little bit longer to get out to you, but it’ll be worth the wait.”
As always, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more. Stay tuned.
Updates: To mark “Alien Day,” Blomkamp shared concept art of Newt. It’s obviously modeled after Carrie Henn (who played Newt in Aliens), but it’s still unclear on whether or not she’ll be reprising her role.
