Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 is Dead, Says Ridley Scott

In late 2015, it was revealed that 20th Century Fox‘s plans for Neill Blomkamp‘s proposed Alien 5 were in a holding pattern pending the release of Ridley Scott’s prequel Alien: Covenant. Now that we’re weeks away from Covenant‘s May 19 bow in theaters, Scott has been asked by Allocine about Blomkamp’s fivequel and he suggests it’s no longer an active project at all.

“There was never a script,” Scott stated bluntly. “It was an idea that evolved from, I believe, a 10-page pitch, and I was meant to be part of the producers on that. It didn’t evolve. Fox decided that they didn’t want to do it and that was it. I’d already done ‘Prometheus’ and I was planning ‘Covenant’ so I dunno.”

When pressed to say if he thinks the sequel would ever happen, Scott said, “I don’t think so, no.” 

So there it is. At the time, Blomkamp had been very public in sharing art and ideas about the sequel, and fans were excited. Rather than coming out right away with the fact that the project had floundered, Fox and Blomkamp went with the more PR-friendly “holding pattern” claim, but the truth seems to be that Blomkamp’s vision for Alien 5 no longer seemed viable.

In late 2015, Michael Biehn (who famously portrayed colonial marine Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in the 1986 classic Aliens) told Icons of Fright that the sequel would have potentially seen his and Sigourney Weaver’s long-awaited return, as well as Newt.

“They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back, and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old,” Biehn confirmed. “I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt.”

Child actress Carrie Henn originally played Rebecca “Newt” Jorden, the sole survivor of the colony on LV-426. Henn retired from acting after playing the role, going on to a career as a teacher, and both Newt and Hicks were unceremoniously killed off at the tippy-top of David Fincher’s Alien 3. Blomkamp’s plan was also to ignore the events of 1992’s Alien 3 and 1997’s Alien: Resurrection for the now-scrapped untitled Alien sequel.

Are you mad that Neil Blomkamp’s proposed Alien 5 is now dead in the water? Or are you happy Fox is leaving the original four-film Alien cycle be? Let us know in the comments below!