It was more than six months ago that director Neill Blomkamp teased the world with his vision of a potential new sequel in the Alien franchise with a bit of cool concept art. A lot has changed since then - including the fact that the movie is now in active development, but that hasn't stopped the filmmaker behind the upcoming blockbuster from sharing his vision with fans.
Just like all of the other concept art that has been officially released by Neill Blomkamp, this post comes from the director's personal Instagram account - and it paints an interesting picture. That's Sigourney Weaver's Ripley on the far left of the image, and Michael Biehn's Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in the middle (sporting some nasty scarring and eye damage). But who is it that they are talking to? What is that armor-like suit that he is wearing? And why does it feature the flag of South Korea on the shoulder? There are a lot of questions we're left asking after looking at this image.
While it hasn't been officially confirmed whether or not Michael Biehn will be joining Sigourney Weaver in the project that has been temporarily dubbed Alien 5, franchise fans and followers of the new sequel will note that this isn't the first time that Hicks has appeared in the concept art (all of which has now been deleted from Neill Blomkamp's Instagram). That being said, this is the first time we've seen the character in artwork since the project was given the greenlight at 20th Century Fox. Could that mean that he will indeed be a key part of the production?
As you can tell, we're still left with many questions about this project, and it doesn't sound like we'll be getting any really firm answers for a while. At this point, we're not even really sure where the movie will actually fall in the series timeline, given that Sigourney Weaver is now 18 years older than when we saw Ripley, but also that Hicks seemed to be killed in the beginning of David Fincher's Alien 3. As the movie starts heading towards the filming stage and starts putting a cast together, hopefully more details about the story and characters will be revealed.
Neill Blomkamp has confirmed that the untitled Alien 5 will be his follow-up to Chappie, and his first venture into franchise filmmaking. That being said, he is currently developing the script, and it's still going to be a while before we actually get to see the finished product. Fox has not yet announced a release date for the project, but it's not expected to be arriving in theaters until 2017. In the meantime, series fans should also get ready for Prometheus 2, which is also currently in the works.
