Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Alien’ Sequel is Dead, According to Ridley Scott

If you like the Alien movies, you’d better also like prequels. Ridley Scott says that the much-ballyhooed sequel, which was in the works from director Neill Blomkamp (District 9), is no more.

The project, which was announced back in 2015, would have continued the adventures of Ellen Ripley, played once again by Sigourney Weaver, in a story that would have ignored the events of the controversial sequels Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. Concept art for the project leaked early, and fans of the franchise were largely encouraged by the potential to take the Alien franchise into the future. Even though the project was put “on hold” in October 2015, hopes were still high that Alien 5 (or whatever it would eventually be called) would eventually see the light of day.

Instead, Ridley Scott confirmed to Allocine that Neill Blomkamp’s sequel is no more. What’s more, he claims it never went further than the pitch phase in the first place.

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“There was never a script. It was an idea which has evolved on, I think, a ten-page pitch, and I was meant to be part, a producer on that. And it didn’t evolve. Fox decided they didn’t want to do it so that was it,” Ridley Scott explained in the interview. “I was already on to… I think I had done Prometheus and I was already planning Covenant, so… I don’t know.”

When pressed for confirmation that Neill Blomkamp’s Alien sequel was never going to happen, Ridley Scott added, “I don’t think so, no.”

Of course, the Alien franchise is humming along without Blomkamp’s involvement with prequel films directed by Ridley Scott himself. Prometheus was released in 2012 with a decidedly mixed response, and the follow-up Alien: Covenant – an “interquel,” if you will – arrives in theaters this summer, on May 19, 2017.

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Top Photo: 20th Century Fox

William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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