When we first started hearing about Neill Blomkamp's new Alien movie, it was unclear where exactly it would fit within the franchise's timeline. After all, Ripley died in Alien 3, yet the new movie would star Sigourney Weaver. Now we're finding out that this new movie will wipe out a serious amount of the franchise's continuity.
According to IGN, in an interview with Sky News (which has since been removed from YouTube), Blomkamp said his Alien movie would disregard the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.
Blomkamp said he wants to take Ripley out of orbiting around in space and give her a proper finish. Ripley orbiting in space is how Aliens ended, so here Blomkamp is implying that the next two movies did not give Ripley a proper sendoff, so he plans to reset the franchise back to the end of Aliens and then take things from there.
Blomkamp also said he wants his new movie to feel like the genetic sibling of Aliens. However, the director also said he wants to bring back some of the horror elements to the franchise, emphasizing the traditional "monster stalking you in a dark corridor" scares.
This is a pretty major shift for the series, and it's rare to see a franchise flat out erasing huge parts of its story like this. But this might be a good thing, as many fans consider Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection to have basically ruined the franchise. David Fincher, director of Alien 3, has since disowned the movie, and even at the time James Cameron called the movie a slap in the face. Let's not forget the way Alien 3 unceremoniously killed off Newt and Hicks in the beginning of the film, completely undermining the last act of Aliens.
We do have to wonder how exactly Blomkamp's movie will deal with this, as it will no doubt be confusing for many viewers to suddenly see Ripley alive again. Based on Blomkamp's concept art, Hicks appears to still be alive too. Will the movie just trust that we'll agree to wipe Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection from our brain and pretend they were never made? Or since Aliens ends with Ripley going into hypersleep, could the new movie reveal the last two movies to be Ripley's nightmare? That would be kind of a cheap plot device, but considering how hated the last two sequels were, I don't think many of us would mind.
It's still kind of crazy that Blomkamp's movie is actually happening. Back in January, we reported on some really cool Alien concept after Neill Blomkamp posted on Instagram for an Alien movie he wanted to make but that never happened. A month later, Blomkamp said that movie could actually be made, and just about a week later, the movie was officially announced. Within a month we went from imagining this movie as a cool "what if" to it actually being the future of the Alien franchise.
We still don't know a whole lot about the movie other than these quotes and what we saw in the fan art, which included Ripley wearing a space jockey helmet.
Aside from the 2012 prequel Prometheus and the Alien vs. Predator movies, this upcoming film will be the first Alien movie since 1997 (or given that the third and fourth movies no longer exist, the first since 1986). Could Blomkamp be the guy to resurrect this dead franchise and give it the treatment it deserves?
Blomkamp's newest movie, Chappie, hits theaters on March 6.
Image via Instagram from Neill Blomkamp
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