In development hell, no one will see your movie.

In 2015, 20th Century Fox revealed plans for a proposed fourth sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, tentatively titled Alien 5, from writer/director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie, Elysium). Cut to 2017 with Ridley Scott’s prequel Alien: Covenant on the horizon with a May 19th release date, Scott has now been asked in an interview by French news site AlloCiné about the current status on the sequel and said that it’s no longer in the making.

Scott told the site, “There was never a script. It was an idea that evolved from, I believe, a 10-page pitch, and I was meant to be part of the producers on that. It didn’t evolve. Fox decided that they didn’t want to do it and that was it. I’d already done Prometheus and I was planning Covenant so I dunno.” When further asked if the sequel would ever see the light of day, Scott replied, “I don’t think so, no.” 

Though little is concretely known about the plot of the would be sequel, actor Michael Biehn (who played Dwayne Hicks in James Cameron’s Aliens) told horror site Icons of Fright in 2015 that Alien 5 would have potentially seen the return of his character Hicks, as well as Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and adopted daughter “Newt”. Newt would take on the lead role in the new series in a soft-reboot.

Biehn stated, “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.”

Although both Newt and Hicks were (SPOILER ALERT) unceremoniously killed off at the very beginning of David Fincher’s Alien 3, Blomkamp’s plan for Alien 5 would have been to ignore the continuity of the poorly received sequels Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection in favor of a more fan-pleasing follow up.

The newest prequel/Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant is set to burst into theaters on May 19th.