Neill Blomkamp’s Abandoned ‘Aliens’ Sequel Would’ve Starred Newt as the New Ripley

Earlier today, Matt Singer wrote an article all about the “Legacyquel” phenomenon where “beloved aging stars reprise classic roles and pass the torch to younger successors.” Recent examples include Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and X-Men: Days of Future Past. One film that almost got added to that list is the now-defunct Aliens sequel where director Neill Blomkamp’s proposed follow-up would’ve had Sigourney Weaver returning co-star alongside a now-grown Newt, who would be the franchise’s new action hero.

The news comes from Aliens star Michael Biehn who confirmed to Icons of Fright that he was set to return for the film with another one of the characters from James Cameron’s 1986 film.

They’re planning on bringing me and Newt back and at this point Newt will be around twenty-seven years old. I know that every actress in Hollywood is going to want to play this one, it’s really a passing of the torch between Sigourney and this younger actress who would play Newt. It would keep the franchise alive and the studios would make money, because that’s what the bottom line is now: money. That’s why you end up seeing Terminator 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10 and The Fast And Furious 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Good point, but we should note that the bottom line has always been about money. They’re just figuring out new and creative ways to make more money and one of those ways is to keep franchises going by passing the torch from one generation to the next.

The jury is out on whether this would be a good idea for an Aliens sequel, but it may not matter much because Blomkamp’s Aliens film was put on indefinite hold to make way for Ridley Scott’s Alien: Convenant. As you might expect, Biehn also has some thoughts on that. [Spoiler Alert: He thinks Fox should make the movie that was going to hire and pay him.]

I know that Ridley’s focus is on [Alien: Covenant] and I’m sure that he and Fox both don’t want that and Neill’s movie to come out right next to each other, because they’re kind of two different worlds, with Aliens taking place thousands of years later, which is how they explained it all to me, but at the same time, they want to give them a similar feel. I know they’re putting the brakes on Neill’s movie just for a little while, but I really think that it would be embarrassing to Ridley and Fox and Sigourney if they just didn’t make the movie.

Blomkamp’s Aliens movie may never happen (Scott has openly discussed making multiple Prometheus sequels), but Alien: Covenant opens in theaters on October 6, 2017.