Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Alien’ Won’t Actually Ignore ‘Alien 3’ and ‘Resurrection’

Neill Blomkamp sure is talking about every other Blomkamp project except Chappie, his new film hitting theaters next week. Mostly, he’s been talking about his plans for a new Alien movie, officially in development at Fox, and in between all of that Alien talk, he’s also admitted his errors with Elysium. It’s been a busy week for Blomkamp, who implied that his Alien project would ignore Alien 3 and Resurrection, the less beloved sequels to the first two films. But now the director is backtracking, and he wants to make something clear: he’s not actually ignoring those films after all—not really, anyway.

In yet another interview, this time with AlloCine, Blomkamp clarified his earlier comments, explaining that his new film will take place between Alien and Aliens:

My favorites are the first two movies, so I want to make a film that’s connected to Alien and Aliens. That’s my goal. I’m not trying to undo Alien 3 or Alien: Resurrection; I just want it to be connected to Alien 1 and 2.

Alien 3 and Resurrection are two very divisive sequels, but they do feature an interesting character arc for Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, who finds herself among a new crew in Alien 3 before becoming an ass-kicking clone with Xenomorph DNA in Resurrection. Weaver recently said that she felt Ripley never received a proper ending, but what she neglected to mention is how heavily involved she was in Ripley’s story, insisting on particular developments in the sequels that helped define where her character ultimately landed.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, etc.

What’s more interesting at this point is how Blomkamp plans on building this “bridge” between Alien and Aliens, and how he plans on utilizing Weaver’s Ripley in this timeline. I’m simultaneously optimistic and a little pessimistic on this one—Blomkamp’s concept art is fantastic, and his ideas are intriguing, but I’m kind of hoping that he isn’t writing the script himself at this point.

It will still be some time before we see this new Alien project, but in the meantime, you can check out Blomkamp’s newest sci-fi effort, Chappie, which hits theaters on March 6.