Neill Blomkamp came to the right franchise at the wrong time. Although the DISTRICT 9 filmmaker had plans to make an ALIEN 5 that would see the return of Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn to the franchise, the development of that sequel was knocked off track by the plans of original ALIEN director Ridley Scott, who returned to the series himself with the prequel PROMETHEUS. Scott has ALIEN movies to make that supersede Blomkamp's.
It has been said that Scott intends for there to be a trilogy of films bridging the events of PROMETHEUS and ALIEN, but there has been some confusion over whether PROMETHEUS counts as part of that trilogy. Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald, the director confirmed that he sees room for three additional movies to fit in between the two – so when all is said and done, ALIEN will have four prequels.
The first of the "bridging trilogy" between PROMETHEUS and ALIEN is the upcoming ALIEN: COVENANT, which stars Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Tess Haubrich, Uli Latukefu, James Franco, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce. Andrew Crawford was in the Xenomorph suit on set and Javier Botet provided a motion capture performance for the creature.
Written by Michael Green, Jack Paglen, and John Logan, ALIEN: COVENANT has the following synopsis:
The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.
ALIEN: COVENANT is set to be released on May 19th, and Scott doesn't want to take much of a break before he gets rolling on the next installment in the series:
You've got to assume to a certain extent success and from that you'd better be ready. You don't want a two-year gap. So I'll be ready to go again next year.
… If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I'm not going to close it down again. No way."
Scott also mentioned that the script for the COVENANT sequel has already been written.
This isn't news that I'm particularly enthusiastic to receive, as I'm not totally on board with this whole "prequel series" idea. I'd much rather be getting Blomkamp's ALIEN 5 than three sequels to PROMETHEUS, but at least Scott seems amped up and inspired.