In 2017, director Neill Blomkamp of District 9 fame teased some concept art and ideas for a proposed Alien 5 which ended up being canceled, but there were interesting story ideas proposed that are worth exploring.
The Alien franchise, while relatively slim in entries, has had its ups and downs along with periods of inactivity. Ridley Scott’s Alien is considered one of the greatest sci-fi/horror movies ever made, with James Cameron’s Aliens also getting a lot of praise despite taking the series in a more action-oriented direction. It’s with David Fincher’s Alien 3 where the series begins to see more of a split in the fandom and each movie since has gotten a mixed reception.
Neill Blomkamp’s proposed Alien 5 would have retconned some things and changed the timeline. While not too much has been released, fans can get somewhat of an idea regarding the direction the movie would have gone in.
Going Back to the Aliens Timeline
Arguably the most controversial thing that Alien 3 did was kill off Newt and Corporal Hicks at the very beginning and practically offscreen in the escape shuttle crash that brings Ripley to the prison planet where the movie takes place. Along with Newt, Hicks, and Ripley was also a badly damaged Bishop, the android. It would be fair to call the four characters the most beloved ones from Aliens, so to only have Ripley survive and appear in the third film despite all four escaping safely soured many fans’ opinions of Alien 3.
It would seem Blomkamp’s Alien 5 would have retconned at least some of that. In his artwork and comments that were made in the aftermath of the film’s cancellation, an older Ripley is shown alongside an older and still alive Hicks. Newt also would have survived and would be in her 20s during the events of Alien 5. Early indications were that the movie would be a proper send off for both the Ripley character and Sigourney Weaver while positioning Newt as the new lead heroine of the franchise. This would have retconned Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. The working title was Alien: Awakening before being shelved in favor of seeing how Ridley Scott’s own sequel, Alien: Covenant, would perform. When Alien: Covenant disappointed, Alien 5 was canceled.
It remains to be seen what’s next for the Alien franchise following Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. While Blomkamp’s planned movie is no more, Sigourney Weaver was reportedly very excited to work on that particular film. Because of this, seeing Ripley one more time isn’t completely out of the question.