Neill Blomkamp's plan to base District 10 around real-world history is a better idea than a straight-up sequel to his acclaimed District 9. In the realm of modern sci-fi, you'd be hard-pressed to find an original movie as unique and thought-provoking as 2009's District 9. Putting Blomkamp on the map as a director, District 9 earned 4 Academy Award nominations (a veritable miracle for its genre), scored rave reviews, and grossed its modest budget several times over. Set in an alternate present day where aliens arrived on Earth in the 1980s and were immediately segregated into slums, District 9 ends with Wikus (Sharlto Copley) and Christopher (Jason Cope) working together so the latter can escape and make contact with his home planet. He promises to return in 3 years and heal Wikus from his extra-terrestrial transformation, leaving the fate of both the protagonist and Earth itself ambiguous.
Naturally, many District 9 fans called for a follow-up to explain what happened when Christopher returned to Earth, and whether Wikus ever received his cure. From the very beginning, Blomkamp spoke of his desire to make a District 10, but also conceded that he hadn't yet devised a story. As different opportunities emerged for the director (including an ill-fated Alien installment), the proposed District 9 sequel was consigned to the back-burner. Back in February, however, Blomkamp finally confirmed District 10 was being written by himself, Terri Tatchell (District 9 co-writer) and also Sharlto Copley.
5 months down the road, the director has announced that writing remains ongoing. Blomkamp also revealed that he didn't want "to just make a sequel" and District 10 would instead draw from a specific period of American history. Though the era Blomkamp is referring to remains a mystery at present, his comment gives some idea of what District 10 might look like. Early signs indicate District 10 will be set after the original movie, and Copley's involvement with the script suggests Wikus will return too. However, Blomkamp is also hinting that District 10's core story will be entirely different. Rather than simply using the sequel to answer lingering threads from District 9, District 10 will seemingly function as a brand new narrative, albeit set within the same world and following the same protagonist. A comparable example (though we can only speculate) might be Mad Max: Fury Road, which both is and isn't a sequel to the earlier movies.
Whatever Blomkamp, Tatchell and Copley have in mind for District 10, veering away from the "direct sequel" route could be the best way to retain the first movie's relevance and impact without falling victim to dreaded "second album syndrome." Between the body horror and sci-fi elements, District 9's true strength was its social commentary on segregation, prejudice, and systematic oppression, with the "Prawns" comparable to any number of real-world communities. Though District 9 left questions answered, they alone aren't enough to sustain a second movie. Certainly, fans want to know whether Christopher leads an armada of alien motherships to Earth and whether his promise to reverse Wikus' transformation is kept, but these ideas only amount to a run-of-the-mill alien invasion movie - the likes of which has been made many, many times before.
Neill Blomkamp's suggestion that District 10 will take inspiration from a different period of social strife is reassuring. Not only should this help recreate the vitality of District 9 as best as possible, but District 10 should feel both familiar (as a political sci-fi commentary set within the same timeline) and fresh (covering an aspect of American history instead of South Africa's apartheid). Independence Day this is not.