‘Alien’ fans rejoice! Or not. I guess a lot depends on Blomkamp. The man who brought us the brilliant ‘District 9,’ the abysmal ‘Elysium,’ and the TBD ‘Chappie‘ is onboard to make the next film in the ‘Alien’ franchise (which, admittedly is old news), but what is news is his decision to keep the new movie within the original continuity. Meaning that ‘Alien 3’ and ‘Alien Resurrection’ will still count. In his own words:
“I’m not trying to undo [‘Alien 3] or Alien Resurrection…My favorites are the first two movies. I want to make a film that’s connected to Alien and Aliens. That’s my goal.”
It is a bold choice considering how many creative reboots or flat-out retcons occur with franchises nowadays, with many directors choosing to ignore any film in the franchise that was not as successful as the original (i.e. ‘Superman Returns’ ignoring everything after ‘Superman 2,’ X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ wiping out the continuity of ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘). Of course, this could also mean that ‘Alien 5’ will be some kind of midquel, taking place between two existing ‘Alien’ movies, though the concept art of an older Ripley and Hicks (seen below) seems to indicate that the movie will jump ahead in the timeline, not back.
Clearly Blomkamp has a plan in mind, because his decision to include the events of ‘Aliens 3’ while also deciding to bring back Michael Biehn (who died very early in ‘Alien 3’), could prove to be difficult to explain. But fans have suspected he planned on bringing Biehn back ever since Blomkamp posted a picture on Instagram of an older Ripley with Biehn’s character, Hicks. Fans have speculated that Blomkamp will solve the dead character issue either with an elaborate time-travel plot, or else have Biehn come back as a clone of the character, as the idea of clones has already been introduced in the world of ‘Alien.’
Of course, I should point out the chief source for the news that Biehn will return is the Instagram picture and a Reddit user who claims he asked Biehn about whether he was returning for ‘Alien 5’ when he spotted the actor at Pensacon and Biehn smiled and answered in the affirmative. Still, all signs point to the actor’s return, and with his inclusion we are guaranteed a rather complex story from Blomkamp. We’ll see how it all comes together when production revs up in the near future.
Source: CinemaBlend, Cinemablend
