There’s only a “slim” chance that Neil Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel/reboot is still happening

Many fans got burnt by Prometheus. I’ll readily admit that I didn’t outright hate it like some did, but you can’t ignore its flaws (or step out the way of a giant spaceship falling on your head apparently). Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien franchise he started three decades ago should have been a triumphant one, instead we got a flawed movie that suffered from a severe identity crisis (it was a prequel then it wasn’t then it totally was again). And while Scott’s follow-up, Alien: Covenant, looks fantastic and he’s saying all the right things to sound like he may have righted the ship, there’s still some trepidation on my part.

What I was actually outright excited for though, was to see what a new talent could do with that universe. Specifically a talent like Neill Blomkamp. Yes, the South African born filmmaker had a couple of increasingly wobbly missteps with Elysium and Chappie after the breakout success of District 9, but he still has an incredible eye for making grungy, lived-in sci-fi universes. Exactly like what you found in the first two Alien movies. So of course it came as no surprise that the internet promptly blew up in excitement when it was revealed in 2015 that Blomkamp had been working on a pitch that would seemingly ignore the events of the maligned later Alien films but instead be a direct sequel to Aliens, resurrecting fan favourite characters in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, Micheal Biehn’s Hicks and the now all grown-up Newt.

We’ve seen the cool concept art for the movie, had Michael Biehn give an excited outline of the “great” script and heard both Weaver and Aliens director James Cameron talk about how in awe they are of what Blomkamp had come up with. We were properly hyped. Yes, it was a bit of a bummer when it was announced that Blomkamp’s movie would be delayed to allow Scott to first finish off his story with Alien: Covenant, but we were still stoked to see what Blomkamp had cooked up. Except now we probably won’t see any of it.

In a rather disappointing turn of events, when asked on Twitter by a fan over the weekend of what’s happening with movie, Blomkamp gave a rather grave reply.

@jamesportella slim

— Иeill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) January 21, 2017

Well damn it. That completely sucks. I would love to know the actual reason why both Scott’s films and Blomkamp’s can’t both be developed. There were rumours that it had to do with the studio not knowing how to market two Alien films at the same time, much less one that ignored the events of previous films. There was also talk that there was some script changes necessary to make both movies work together. Now I completely understand that Scott is the father of this franchise and takes preference, but I just can’t see how there could be any clash here. Whereas Prometheus and Alien: Covenant takes place years before the events of the first film, it was already revealed that Blomkamp’s film would take place way after Aliens and would feature a 27-year old Newt. What’s more, the movie would have positioned this grown-up Newt as the lead of a brand new franchise, and we all know how much studios love franchises, especially ones starring beloved characters.

So are you sad to hear that Blomkamp’s Aliens sequel/reboot is now probably not going to happen?

Last Updated: January 24, 2017