One of the casualties of Ridley Scott returning to the franchise with Alien: Covenant was that Neill Blomkamp’s promising Alien 5 got completely side-lined. First, we received word that the movie was put on hold. Then, we heard from Blomkamp himself that the movie most likely would never happen.
Prior to Ridley Scott’s return, we were able to see concept art for Blomkamp’s sequel that looked fantastic. Sigourney Weaver was attached. In many ways, it felt like production was moving along briskly before things were put to an abrupt halt. However, speaking to the French news outlet Allocine, Ridley Scott claims that the movie was nothing more than an outline (translated from French by Bloody-Disgusting.com):
“I think it will never see the light,” said Scott. “There was never a scenario, just an idea that evolved into a pitch of ten pages. I had to participate as a producer but it did not go any further because the Fox decided that it did not want to do it. I had already done Prometheus and worked on Covenant.”
While it is disappointing that we will most likely never see Blomkamp’s Alien 5, at least knowing it wasn’t far along takes the sting out of the whole thing. If only a little bit…
Alien: Covenant is set for release on May 19th and is penned by Michael Green, Jack Paglen and John Logan. Prometheus stars Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Guy Pearce return alongside new cast additions Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down), Demian Bichir (A Better Life), Billy Crudup (Watchmen), Jussie Smollett (Empire), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), Benjamin Rigby (That’s Not Me), Callie Hernandez (Machete Kills), Tess Haubrich (The Wolverine) and James Franco (Why Him?).
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Originally published April 28, 2017. Updated March 2, 2020.
