Neill Blomkamp Offers Updates On His ‘Alien’ And ‘District 9’ Sequels

Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) was developing Alien 5 — which would have ignored Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection and started where Aliens leaves off — for years before it was delayed by Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant. Blomkamp recently shed doubt on his sequel ever being made, and now he’s confirmed it’s likely “totally dead” in an interview where he also reveals he’s lining up a District 9 sequel.

The Verge spoke to Blomkamp about his new Oats Studios project, which will put his new short films online for free with the aim to gain traction for turning the most popular ones into feature films. The same technique has worked for him in the past; District 9 was based on the success of his short film Alive in Joburg.

During the interview, the topic turned to Alien, with Blomkamp saying, “Films like Alien were what made me want to get into the industry.” But as for his own take on the franchise, he says, “I think it’s totally dead, yes. […] I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it’s gone now, and the way that it all is — it’s just not going to live.” When asked if it was studio politics, he answered:

“Yeah. Ridley [Scott] was one of my idols growing up. He’s so talented and he’s made this film that really set me off in a direction. I want to just be as respectful and not go stamping around in this world that he created. I think that if the circumstances were different, and I didn’t feel like I was getting too close to something that he obviously feels a massive personal connection to, that things that may have played out differently. But I did want to be as respectful as possible.”

Ridley Scott recently said he “can keep cranking it for another six,” so it may be a long time before any other directors get to play with the Alien franchise.

But Blomkamp is still keeping busy. Besides the short films, he also told The Verge he plans on making another film in the District 9 world. Maybe he’ll call it District 10 and then I’ll have to explain to my mom why she hasn’t seen the other nine movies yet.