Alien 5 brings back Newt and has Ripley hand the franchise off to her

Alien 5 brings back Newt and has Ripley hand the franchise off to her

The story of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 is still shrouded in secrecy, especially since Ridley Scott’s decision to make Alien: Covenant (AKA Prometheus 2) early next year has put the project on indefinite hold. That hasn’t stopped the principals involved from sharing what they know about the project, with Michael Biehn opening up about why 20th Century Fox was so hot on letting Blomkamp’s idea eventually become part of the Alien series. Apparently the new movie would pretend Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection hadn’t happened and pass on the franchise to an older version of Newt, the little girl Ripley rescues in Aliens.

In case you need a refresher – Aliens ends with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), and injured Hicks (Biehn), the top half of Bishop (Lance Henrikson) and Newt (Carrie Henn) entering cryosleep after escaping the xenomorph queen that had managed to stow away on the ship. They blew up the infested planet and jettisoned the queen into space and were seemingly on their way back to Earth. By the time 20th Century Fox had got Alien 3 into production, the story had abandoned the characters of Newt and Hicks entirely to isolate Ripley on a mens-only prison planet.

Ripley dies at the end of Alien 3 only to be brought back to life along with the xenomorph queen inside of her for Alien: Resurrection. That movie didn’t resurrect the franchise, but sent it off in two competing directions, one with Predators and one comprised of prequels directed by Ridley Scott. When Neill Blomkamp was finishing up his latst sci-fi film Chappie, which also starred Sigourney Weaver, he started to reveal the concept art he had accumulated while coming up with a fifth Alien movie that could bring Ripley back to the franchise, Predator requiems be damned. Some of the concept art featuring an aged Ripley also showed a scarred Hicks, looking like Michael Biehn, which was a little confusing as his character had been dead for two movies.

The Alien Vs. Predator spin-off series never attracted the audiences with its monster mash and neither did Prometheus, even though it was visually stunning from a technical standpoint. Considering most movies don’t have their debut by the director putting concept art on Instagram, it looked like continuing the story of Ripley was something that 20th Century Fox wasn’t interested in.

That proved to be an incorrect assumption when the studio started developing Blomkamp’s movie in general and the director started pre-production on the film, approaching both Weaver and Biehn. Prometheus 2 got renamed Alien: Covenantand Ridley Scott and Fox put Alien 5 on hold so too many Alien films don’t confuse the public, but according to Biehn, the Alien films are destined to become a mega franchise.

Speaking to Icons of Fright about his new role in 24 Hour Rental, Biehn talked about Alien 5 like it will be a hand-off movie between Ripley and a new strong female lead to take on the xenomorphs in future installments. “They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old,” he says. “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.”

Alien 5 won’t resume pre-production until Alien: Covenant is done shooting, so next summer at the very earliest. Who knows exactly when the movie would shoot. The reality is Weaver and Biehn aren’t getting any younger, but neither is Ridley Scott who is directing Covenant and executive producing Alien 5.

We won’t know who’s in the running for a younger Newt, or how elegantly Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection will be written out of the franchise for at least a year while this project gestates inside Neill Blomkamp’s torso.