The Alien franchise has been through a lot of permutations over the years, but one thing it's never produced over the years is a fifth film in the core series that started with Alien and concluded (for now) with Alien Resurrection. After releasing four movies in the span of 18 years chronicling Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley and her encounters with alien xenomorphs, there's been no direct follow-up in the decades since. This hasn't been for a lack of trying. Several high-profile creators have been involved with a proposed Alien 5, but for various reasons all of these projects have fallen apart.
Since 1997, the Alien franchise has instead focused on spin-offs and prequels. This included two Alien vs. Predator movies and two prequel films directed by franchise creator Ridley Scott, the divisive Prometheus and the better-received Alien: Covenant. However, none of these movies are a direct continuation of the series that began with the original 1979 Alien.
Due to Disney's acquisition of 21rst Century Fox, the Alien franchise is now under new ownership. This has meant the scuppering of a proposed third film in Scott's prequel series and some new projects in the works including an Alien TV series for FX and a renewed push for a direct sequel. However, history shows that when it comes to Alien 5, the best-laid plans can quickly unravel.
James Cameron's Alien 5
Titanic director James Cameron, who also helmed the beloved sequel Aliens, was at one point slated to return to the franchise for Alien 5. We don't know a lot of details about the plot, and it never got far in production, but in a 2006 interview he mentions that he was working on an idea together with Ridley Scott and another writer at some point in the early 2000s. However, Cameron says he left the project after learning that Alien vs. Predator was being produced, feeling it was a desecration of the characters:
I got pretty upset. I said, "You do that you're going to kill the validity of the franchise in my mind." Because to me, that was FRANKENSTEIN MEETS WEREWOLF. It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other.
Cameron goes on to note that he actually liked AvP, but still has no plans to return to the franchise. With the famed director seemingly booked up with Avatar sequels for the next decade, it seems unlikely that we'll see James Cameron direct another Alien movie, let alone Alien 5, but it was a real possibility in the early 2000s.
Joss Whedon's Alien 5
While it's often forgotten about these days, Joss Whedon was a fairly prolific film screenwriter in the 1990s, including penning the screenplay for Alien Resurrection. Despite an overall negative response to Alien Resurrection, he also wrote a screenplay for a fifth Alien movie. This script would have been set on Earth, similar to a story treatment called Alien: Earthbound written by Stuart Hazeldine years earlier that had impressed Fox executives.
Reportedly, Fox was interested in Whedon's script, but Sigourney Weaver didn't like the idea of an Earth-set movie. This, along with Whedon's increasingly busy television career, likely killed the project. With Whedon recently retreating from Hollywood facing charges of on-set abuse and harassment, this is another project that seems permanently dead. The upcoming Alien TV show, however, does use the idea of a story about the xenomorphs on Earth.
Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5
The most recent attempt at Alien 5 involved South African director Neil Blonkamp, best known for the sci-fi film District 9. Blonkamp's movie, reportedly named Alien: Awakening, would take place immediately after Aliens and ignore the other two sequels. The movie would have also seen the return of Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, and continued her story. Blonkamp went so far as creating his own concept art independent of Fox, although he stressed (via Coming Soon) that the project was never confirmed:
“Fox was blindsided by it, which wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to share artwork with people that liked the franchise. I don’t know whether it’s going to happen or not. We’ll see.”
In the end the answer was "not," as Fox instead decided to focus on Scott's prequel series. Blonkamp's falling reputation after multiple poorly-received movies probably also hurt his chances. James Cameron later campaigned for the revival of Blonkamp's version of Alien circa 2019. In comparison with the above two Alien sequels, this one could still plausibly get made, but for the time being it seems Disney is moving in a different direction with future Alien movies.
Will Disney's New Alien 5 Attempt Actually Work?
At CinemaCon 2019, Disney confirmed that it was developing multiple future Alien projects following its acquisition. One will be a third prequel film directed by Ridley Scott, which may or not be related to his previous two prequels. There will also be a stand-alone Alien movie directed by Fede Alvarez which will be released directly to Hulu, with Scott producing, and an Alien TV series produced by Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley. However, neither of these would really be Alien 5.
There are still perennial rumblings about a direct sequel that would continue Ripley's story. In 2020, Brandywine Productions released images of an Alien V script being worked on by longtime franchise producer Walter Hill and David Giler. Sigourney Weaver has said that she would be willing to come back for the right script. Given the potential interest in a new entry to the main Alien series, it seems like an avenue that Disney will explore sooner or later.
The biggest issues facing Alien 5 are the ones facing all the sequels and prequels since Aliens. The first two movies in the franchise became favorites because of their drum-tight scripts and effective action, but subsequent entries have struggled to build up a larger universe of lore around the xenomorphs, giving the impression that there's just not that much meat left on the bone. Any sequel would also have to have a creative direction that Weaver, Scott, and Disney all agree on. The release of Prey at least shows that it's possible for Disney to create an effective back-to-basics version of a sci-fi franchise it inherited from Fox. There's still no definite plans, but it now seems more likely than ever that fans will one day see Alien 5.