Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
Sigourney Weaver has shared some new thoughts about why Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 never happened.

Weaver played Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien, which was released in 1979. She then went on to reprise that role in three sequels: James Cameron’s Aliens, David Fincher’s Alien 3, and 1997’s Alien Resurrection.

In the mid-2010s, Blomkamp announced plans to direct an Alien 5 movie that would once again star Weaver. The project, however, never came to fruition, as Scott came back to the franchise to direct 2012’s Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant, the latter of which was considered to be a box office disappointment and put future installments on hold for some time.

What did Sigourney Weaver say about Alien 5?

Speaking at a recent screening of Alien that took place at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, France, Weaver shared some thoughts about why Blomkamp’s Alien 5 never happened.

She said, via AVPGalaxy, “Yes. Well, I think like many of us, I was a big admirer of Neill. His movie was so striking and I worked with him on a movie called [Chappie]. And I loved workin with Neil and he had this idea of bringing Ripley and Newt back. It was a wonderful script and unfortunately, it was at that point I think that Ridley Scott decided to be very possessive about the series and really drilled down on his prequels. And so I think it was a disaster for that project. We were never able to… I think Neil in fact just gave up and he’s so talented. I wish him all the best.”

While Blomkamp’s Alien 5 will likely never happen, there was another Alien movie, Alien: Romulus, that was released last year. A sequel to that project is now in development.

Blomkamp’s most recent movie, meanwhile, was 2023’s Gran Turismo. It was announced last spring that he’s now writing and directing an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.