Why There May Never Be An Alien 5

It's hard to imagine the Alien series without Sigourney Weaver, but the star who played Lieutenant Ellen Ripley from the first movie (1979) through to Alien Resurrection (1997) actually almost passed on the role. It was only after director Ridley Scott showed her H.R. Giger's stunning design for the titular creature that Weaver agreed to sign on, but even then she had no idea just how iconic a movie Alien would become. "The atmosphere Ridley Scott was creating was incredibly real and unsettling, but I don't think I could have predicted our little movie — and it felt like a little spooky movie — would have such legs," she told Collider.

Those legs ran out with the disappointing Resurrection, at least for Weaver. She has, however, expressed an interest in reprising the role of Ripley. "There's more story to tell," she said in June 2014. "I certainly know young filmmakers who are interested in doing that, so we'll just have to see what happens." One of the filmmakers she was referring to was evidently Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), who got the pulses of Alien fans everywhere racing when he released some concept art for a potential Alien 5 the following year.

With an up-and-coming sci-fi director champing at the bit and the star of the show open to a return, Alien 5 seemed like a no-brainer, but it never got out of the blocks. Read on to find out why it didn't happen, and why it might never happen.

During her aforementioned interview with Collider, Sigourney Weaver revealed that she "pictured this big blob of yellow gel rumbling around" when she first read the script for Alien. It wasn't until she saw the monster that Swiss artist and designer H.R. Giger had come up with that she began to understand what made Alien unique. "At the first meeting with Ridley, he pulled out all these beautiful big drawings H.R. Giger had done," she recalled. "He's one of the main reasons we're still here talking about this film."

Giger's contribution to the Alien franchise has been well-noted (only he and the guy inside the Xenomorph suit were allowed to watch the first rough cuts of the creature with the director), but Scott is of the belief that Giger's iconic creation has now lost its ability to scare audiences. "I think the beast has almost run out, personally," he revealed during a November 2017 roundtable conversation with The Hollywood Reporter. "You've got to come in with something else. You've got to replace that."

The typically outspoken helmer reiterated this opinion when he spoke to the Toronto Sun in January 2018, suggesting that the Xenomorph needed to be reinvented. The franchise is named and based around the existence of this vicious alien, so if it just isn't scary anymore, is there any point in making an Alien 5? It was terrifying in its day, but now it takes more than a creature from outer space to excite audiences.

Neill Blomkamp released more concept art for his canned Alien movie in 2017. "Just going through the volume of art created for this never to be made Aliens sequel," he tweeted in December. "From environments to characters to set design, we did a lot." He shared more fascinating prep work as recently as October 2018, adding a picture of a four-armed Xenomorph sculpt to his Instagram. "I'm not working on this, it's just in the office and I love it," he said.

But why isn't he working on it? In one word: Covenant. Blomkamp said that preparation for his sequel (which would have picked up right after Aliens, ignoring the third and fourth movies) really got going in 2015. This was around the time that Ridley Scott had just finished his work on critical and commercial sci-fi smash The Martian, leaving him with an open slate waiting to be filled. This effectively gave the studio a choice, and they sided with Scott's prequels over a Blomkamp sequel.

"Fox decided that they didn't want to do [Alien 5], so that was it," he told AlloCiné (via Gizmodo). "I think I had already done Prometheus and I was already planning Covenant, so, dunno." Scott was clearly eager to pour water over the embers of Blomkamp's project, adding that it was never really very far along to begin with. "There was never a script," he claimed. "It was an idea which was evolved on, I think, a ten-page pitch."

All of the boardroom decisions we've covered so far were made by Fox executives, and while Alien films may still be released under the Fox name in the coming years, they will likely be made under the supervision of Disney. Alien is one of the many properties that the Mouse House stands to gain access to with its purchase of Fox's library of intellectual property assets, which is a cause of concern for some, Ridley Scott included. Speaking to Digital Spy, the veteran filmmaker expressed concern over what rating any future Alien movies would shoot for.

"I've been with Fox for a number of years now [and] I'm hoping I'll still probably be there, so whether or not they go ahead with such a dark subject — being Disney — as Aliens remains to be seen," Scott said. "They draw the line at anything that crosses PG-13." The director did go on to say that he believes Disney will see sense and continue to expand the R-rated Alien universe under a different banner, but the studio has had its fingers burned with acquired franchises recently.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to dominate Hollywood, but Disney has had a much harder time peddling Star Wars. CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter it was "too much, too fast" and announced plans to scale back Star Wars output. But even with less Star Wars, Disney has a lot going on and will no doubt be wary about messing with Alien canon, whether that be with Scott's prequels or potential sequels.

When he revealed that Hicks and Newt were potentially returning in Neill Blomkamp's planned Alien 5, veteran action star Michael Biehn also suggested that Sigourney Weaver would be bowing out in favor of a new lead who would be able to carry the franchise going forward. "It's really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt," he told Icons of Fright. "It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that's what the bottom line is now: money."

It doesn't look as though Newt will be returning any time soon, but Biehn is right about one thing — money talks in Hollywood, and franchise longevity is key. Would bringing Sigourney Weaver back for another run out as Ripley achieve that? It would be easier (and likely far more profitable) for Disney to simply wipe the slate clean and start over with the Alien franchise, putting the prequels, original series, and any chance of an Alien 5 to bed. In fact, prior to the takeover talks with Disney, Fox were reportedly planning on doing just that.

"They were gonna jump, I heard, into the future, past all the movies we've known into a new timeline," Collider's Steve Weintraub said. "So you could start again with new characters, new predicaments, whatever it may be and start these movies at maybe a lower budget and basically continue doing Alien movies but not worry about David and all the other stuff."