Neill Blomkamp says there’s only a slim chance we’ll see his Alien 5

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

Neill Blomkamp's films ELYSIUM and CHAPPIE haven't been as well received as his feature directorial debut DISTRICT 9 was, but it still stirred up a lot of excitement when 20th Century Fox gave him the go-ahead to start officially developing an ALIEN sequel he had been daydreaming about in his free time.

Blomkamp was planning to bring back Sigourney Weaver as franchise heroine Ripley and her ALIENS co-star Michael Biehn as Dwayne Hicks in a sequel that would set aside the events of ALIEN 3 and ALIEN: RESURRECTION to take the characters of Ripley, Hicks, and Newt in a different direction. There was a lot of support for this idea in the fan community – but then the project came to a screeching halt when pre-production began on Ridley Scott's ALIEN prequel / PROMETHEUS sequel ALIEN: COVENANT.

Fans were told not to be discouraged, that Blomkamp's ALIEN 5 would be back on track once Scott's film was released out into the world… although the rumor that COVENANT would be receiving two sequels of its own to lead up to the events of the first ALIEN seemed to complicate the matter even further. Even so, attempts have been made to keep hope alive for ALIEN 5 over the fifteen months since development was shut down, many of these attempts coming from Weaver – she has praised Blomkamp's "amazing script" and has said she'd be surprised if the film didn't end up happening.

As someone who would be much more interested in seeing Blomkamp make an ALIEN movie with Weaver and Biehn than in seeing movies that occur between PROMETHEUS and ALIEN, I would still like to be able to hold on to hope that the ALIEN 5 project will happen, and will happen sooner than later. However, it's a bad sign that Blomkamp himself doesn't think the movie is likely to get made.

When asked on Twitter "What are the chances of the ALIEN project happening?", Blomkamp simply replied "Slim".

If Neill Blomkamp's ALIEN 5 was a movie you really wanted to see, it's probably best to start trying to come to terms with the fact that it might never happen.

@jamesportella slim

— Èeill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) January 21, 2017