For some time now, the rumor has been that Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 - whatever it ends up being called - would somehow work around the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. From the get-go, that's been the idea, though it's been unclear how extensive that workaround might be, or how Blomkamp and company might go about pulling it off.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sigourney Weaver makes it very clear: they're just going to disregard Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection entirely:

...Weaver is working with District 9 filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to create a new Aliens sequel, one that picks up where Cameron’s film left off and somewhat de-canonizes David Fincher’s Alien 3 (1992) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection (1997). “It’s just as if, you know, the path forks and one direction goes off to three and four and another direction goes off to Neill’s movie,” Weaver says.

To me, that sounds suspiciously like, "It's just as if, you know, fuck those movies" (perhaps it's the term "de-canonize"), which strikes me as a dangerous angle to be taking on a franchise with a rabid, highly-vocal fanbase. It's true that both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection are the lesser-loved Alien films (not counting the Alien VS Predator films, of course, but come on: no one's taking those things seriously), but is this fanbase really prepared to shrug off those entries so that Neill Blomkamp (Chappie) can play in James Cameron's three-decade-old sandbox? Really?

Are you guys onboard with this, or is my well-documented love for Alien 3 just making me cranky?