Some more concept art from Neill Blomkamp's canceled Alien sequel has surfaced online. While the film remains dead in the water, fans of the franchise have been eager to know more about what would have been a fifth installment of the popular sci-fi horror franchise. Blomkamp's other directorial credits include sci-fi films District 9, Chappie, and Elysium, and he has a new movie coming out in 2021 called Demonic, which has been described as a supernatural horror film.
If you don't already know, back in 2015 Blomkamp shared several pictures on social media that showed early concept art for an Alien film that he had supposedly been working on. This included images of the infamous alien xenomorph and series protagonist Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). This got a lot of fans excited, as it implied that a 5th Alien movie starring Weaver in one of her most famous roles might be in the works. At the time the most recent film in the series was the prequel Prometheus, which was directed by the franchise's original director Ridley Scott and took place many years before the first film.
Blomkamp eventually stated that he was indeed planning on making an Alien film featuring Weaver and that it would be a direct sequel to Aliens, the second film in the franchise and the sole entry by director James Cameron. However, in October of that year, the project was shelved by 20th Century Fox and the studio went forward with another prequel film directed by Scott, a sequel to Prometheus titled Alien: Covenant. Despite the general enthusiasm from the fans and an online petition, it seems like Blomkamp's film is unlikely to move forward.
The new Alien images were posted to Artstation by concept artist Geoffroy Thoorens. They show off some advanced space marines, or soldiers of some kind, as well as Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Ripley along with an android of some kind. Androids have played an important role throughout the franchise. In the first film, Ripley and her crew were betrayed by their android Ash (Ian Holm), and in the second film, Ripley is forced to work with another android named Bishop (Lance Henriksen), who turns out to be one of her most trusted allies in the film. Aliens also featured a group of space Marines (including Hicks) who accompany Ripley to a deserted space colony that has been overrun by xenomorphs.
What's interesting about Blomkamps's hypothetical 5th film is that it's clear that it would have retconned both the third and fourth installments, Alien 3 and Alien Ressurection. Neither film did particularly well, so this shouldn't come as a surprise. This is evident since characters introduced in Aliens, such as Space Marine Cpl. Hicks (Michel Biehn), are featured in the concept art. Hicks was unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the third film, which some fans felt was a disservice to a character that had been greatly developed in the previous film.
With the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, the future of the franchise remains uncertain. Last year, Scott hinted that there would another installment of the franchise, but was uncertain as to whether it would tie into his recent prequel films. There is a confirmed Alien TV show in the works at FX from Legion and Fargo creator Noah Hawley, but details are sparse at the moment. Blomkamp seems to have moved on to other projects, so for now fans will just have to speculate on what could have been.
You can watch every film in the Alien franchise on Disney Plus in Canada and Europe.
Source: Geoffroy Thoorens | Artstation