Neill Blomkamp Wants Michael Biehn to Return for ‘Alien 5’

At this point it seems like a done deal that Neill Blomkamp is making a new Alien movie as his follow-up to this week’s Chappie. And it also seems like a done deal that Sigourney Weaver, the star of all four previous Alien movies, will be joining him to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley. But Blomkamp’s said he envisions his film connecting directly to Alien and Aliens, and the concept art he put on Instagram that sparked all this mishegas included images of Ripley alongside Hicks, the Space Marine played by Michael Biehn in Aliens. Does that mean Biehn will be back for Blomkamp’s Alien as well?

Possibly. Digital Spy posted a video interview with Blomkamp and Weaver that concludes with a question about Biehn. Has that project changed, Blomkamp’s asked, since the concept art? Or does the plan still call for Ripley and Hicks? “No,” he replies, “Hopefully we see them.”

There’s also a few reports on Reddit (which aren’t confirmed, and should be judged accordingly) that Biehn was dropping hints about the project at Pensacon in Florida last weekend. He supposedly told one fan he has been contacted for the film and when asked by another if he was going to do it his alleged response was “Looks like it!”

Blomkamp’s given some mixed signals about how faithful his film will be to the entire Alien quadrilogy; sometimes he claims he’s going to ignore Alien 3 and Resurrection completely; other times he insists he’s “not trying to undo [them].” But if Biehn returns, they’ll have to be some amount of undoing (or clever retconning), since Hicks died at the very beginning of Alien 3. Unless Biehn’s playing a clone or a twin or something, there’s going to be some creative liberties taken. But Michael Biehn is awesome, so who cares?