The Alien franchise has evolved considerably from its humble beginnings back in 1979. It's a series that has gone from the talented hands of Ridley Scott to James Cameron, to David Fincher, and so on -- until finally returning to Scott once again for this year's Alien: Covenant. However, as many fans already know, District 9's Neill Blomkamp almost got his hands on the franchise for a unique vision of Alien 5. Blomkamp's vision has become one of the most infamous "what if" Hollywood scenarios in recent memory, but it now seems that film will likely never actually materialize. Ridley Scott explained:
I don't think it will ever see the light of day. There was never a script. Just an idea that evolved from a dozen or so pages. I had to participate as producer, but it didn't go farther because Fox decided it didn't want to do it. As far I was concerned, I had already done Prometheus and I was working on Covenant.
There you have it, folks. Ridley Scott's recent comments to Allocine (via Screen Rant) make it pretty clear: you're not going to see Neill Blomkamp's version of the Alien universe at any point in the near future. As excited as people got for the new adventures of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Hicks (Michael Biehn) when Neill Blomkamp's concept art debuted online, there was never a real script or a real story for how Alien 5 would actually come together. The concept got longtime fans very excited when the original art debuted on Instagram, but now it appears that Scott is now all in on his quest to bridge the Prometheus and Alien franchises in the years before Ellen Ripley ever set foot on the Nostromo.
As much as we still want to see the Neill Blomkamp version of Alien 5 come together at some point, it's hard to argue against the fact that it feels more like fan fiction than a natural progression of the story. Virtually ignoring the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, the film would've picked up with a significantly older Ripley and Hicks in a brand new adventure against the Xenomorphs. The Alien franchise has never been known for sticking to continuity, but even that would've been a stretch for narrative logistics.
Check out a trailer for Alien: Covenant below to see where Ridley Scott will soon take the Xenomorph universe.
We will just have to wait and see whether or not Neill Blomkamp's vision for the Alien universe will ever come to fruition. For now, Ridley Scott's vision will return to theaters when Alien: Covenant makes its theatrical debut next month on May 19, 2017.
