Alien sequel pushed back to make way for Prometheus 2

Alien vs. Engineers

According to sources close to the movie, Neil Blomkamp's much talked-about Alien sequel is being pushed back to make room for Prometheus 2. 

Alien 5, as it is tentatively known, aims to get the beleaguered franchise back on track by jettisoning the events of Alien 3 and 4 and picking up where Aliens left off. This means Michael Biehn is back as the grunt-with-a-heart-of-gold, Hicks, and Ripley will be completely Alien-DNA free. 

Ridley Scott, director of the original Alien, is producing the film, but, according to sources at Fox, has insisted on making his own movie, Prometheus 2, first. 

“Alien 5 is still very much in the works," a source close to the franchise told Bloody Disgusting, "as Fox remains hot on the idea. Blomkamp continues to work on the script (only an outline existed previously) and refine the tale he is telling. Ridley Scott is still producing, but has insisted on Prometheus 2 being made first.”

Despite completely failing to deliver as a prequel to Alien, I actually have a lot of love for Prometheus. Sure the script was needlessly cryptic and the characters anaemic, but I loved the atmosphere and believe the mysterious Engineers, as well as their ghastly experiments in creation, are ripe for further exploration. I got that Scott and and his team were trying to divorce themselves from the Alien series, using the seeds of that franchise to create something completely different, and I'd love to see them continue in that vein, developing the Prometheus franchise into the full-bore space opera the first film only hints at. 

With Scott shooting Prometheus 2 next year, with a planned release for 2017, Alien 5 won't release until at least 2018. This gives Blomkamp plenty of time to fine-tune his vision for Alien and, hopefully, deliver a film that puts the franchise back on track.