Neil Blomkamp’s delayed Alien 5 will focus on an older Newt

Last month, it was revealed that 20th Century Fox‘s plans for Neill Blomkamp‘s proposed big screen foray into their Alien universe were in a holding pattern pending the release of Ridley Scott’s prequel Alien: Covenant, which will soon begin production in Australia for an October 6, 2017 release. Now Michael Biehn, who famously portrayed colonial marine Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in the 1986 classic Aliens, has spilled the beans (Biehns?) to Icons of Fright about the sequel, which could potentially see his and Sigourney Weaver’s long-awaited return, as well as another big character from the franchise.

“They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back, and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old,” Biehn confirmed. “I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt.”

Child actress Carrie Henn originally played Rebecca “Newt” Jorden, the sole survivor of the colony on LV-426. Henn retired from acting after playing the role, going on to a career as a teacher, and the character was unceremoniously killed off (and dissected) at the tippy-top of David Fincher’s Alien 3. Fans who disliked seeing the beloved character offed before she and her surrogate family of Ripley and Hicks could have more adventures will be pleased to note that the events of 1992’s Alien 3 and 1997’s Alien: Resurrection will be summarily ignored in Blomkamp’s untitled Alien sequel.

“The basic idea is acting like Alien 3 and 4 never existed, so if you go on Neill Blomkamp’s site everyone can see all of the artwork for that,” continued Biehn.

Scott has previously suggested that Alien: Covenant may be followed by additional sequels which could theoretically threaten to delay Neill Blomkamp’s Alien project indefinitely. With no guarantee it will ever come to fruition, Biehn remains hopeful and suggests that it would be in everyone’s best interest to have Alien 5 see the light of day.

“I know Ridley Scott is doing his movie first and is going to be the executive producer on this one, so I’m really looking forward to that,” Biehn says. “I know that Ridley’s focus is on the second ‘Prometheus’ and I’m sure that he and Fox both don’t want that and Neill’s movie to come out right next to each other, because they’re kind of two different worlds, with ‘Aliens’ taking place thousands of years later, which is how they explained it all to me, but at the same time, they want to give them a similar feel. I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.”

In the meantime, Biehn will shortly begin filming the Chechen war thriller Kickback with Famke Janssen and John Cusack.