Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 Is ‘Dead'

Long before the world was aware of Alien: Covenant, there was another Alien movie that people were champing at the bit to see: Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5, which would serve as a direct sequel to Aliens and see Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn return to the franchise. Even though it was put into development, it really ever only existed as pieces of concept art, but fans of the long running series were beyond excited for what the District 9 director had in store for Ellen Ripley and her Xenomorph adversaries. But this turn of events saw the Prometheus sequel, which would eventually become Alien: Covenant, kicked into high gear, and the prospect of the Alien mastermind Ridley Scott returning to the franchise seems to make Fox pump the brakes on Blomkamp’s proposed sequel. Now, talking to Allocine, Scott seems to have confirmed that the movie will not be happening:

There was never a screenplay, just an idea that evolved into a pitch of 10 pages…I was always just a producer, but it didn’t go any further because Fox decided that it didn’t want to do it

While there’s probably more to the story than Scott is letting on, it does make sense that Fox would side with the creator of the franchise over the newcomer, especially with the sour critical reception of his last movie, Chappie. But this doesn’t put the end to more Alien sequels, with Scott planning three more movies that will eventually connect back to Alien. As for Blomkamp, you can imagine that Alien 5 was something he was hoping would turn around his fortunes.