The Internet has a fascinating tendency to make things happen through sheer force of fanboy desire, and it looks like the collective will of every nerd with a computer has done it again: Chappie and District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is actually going to make that crazy Alien movie he has been talking about for a while. Blomkamp first showed off concept art from his vision for an Alien sequel back in January, but he made it clear at the time that he wasn’t actually working on an Alien movie, he just thought his ideas for one were cool.


People were intrigued by the art—how could they not be, with that freaky Ripley up there?—and Blomkamp suggested that he had been meeting with Fox about it, but that nothing official had happened yet. Then, just a few days ago, Sigourney Weaver popped up to tell MTV that she’d make another Alien movie if Blomkamp is the one behind it, and apparently Fox thought that was a good enough reason to finally make the deal official.

Blomkamp himself revealed the news on Twitter tonight, posting an Instagram link to a drawing of the classic xenomorph with the message, “Um…So I think it’s officially my next film.” He even added “#alien” to make it that much more official. Variety‘s sources inside the vents at 20th Century Fox have now confirmed that Blomkamp is developing a new Alien movie, and also that it will be a separate project from the Prometheus sequel that is also in the works. That means there’s a good chance we’ll be getting a sequel to the old Alien movies and a sequel to the Alien prequel, which will hopefully help make that series as confusing as possible.


As of right now, we don’t know if Blomkamp or Fox will hold Sigourney Weaver to what she said, so Ripley’s involvement is still far from confirmed. Still, though, new Alien movie!