Michael Biehn on Alien 5: “It’s going to happen” & “I’m going to be in it”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This year James Cameron’s ALIENS is celebrating its 30th anniversary, which is giving us a lot of interviews with the cast and a special edition Blu-ray—and people are pretty psyched. On top of that, Ridley Scott’s sequel to PROMETHEUS is on the way—and people are pretty psyched. Needless to say people have a lot to be psyched about when it comes to the ALIEN saga. But now, thanks to one series actor, our psyched levels are about to go haywire.

In an interview with Forbes, ALIENS actor Michael Biehn talked about his first experiences with director Neill Blomkamp, who has dropped details on his plans to still make ALIEN 5:

I got a call a few years ago from Neill Blomkamp and my agent say he wants to put me in his new movie, he was interested in me playing the antagonist and could I film myself doing a scene for him – it didn’t feel like an audition. I thought I did a pretty good job but I got a call from my agent saying I didn’t get the part and I was surprised because I thought he wanted me to be in it. I was disappointed, I’ve been disappointed before when I didn’t get a part and with things like Avatar and the third Alien movie, but the next thing I hear is that Sigourney Weaver is doing the movie. I looked it up on IMDB and she was doing the part that I guess I was auditioning for! I was like, ‘Sigourney, you’re killing me!’.”

Even though that whole situation didn’t work out for Biehn, there was a silver-lining to the cloud, one that hints the new ALIEN movie is alive and well:

Well, she’s doing the movie, CHAPPIE, and he pitches her an idea for another movie in the ALIEN franchise, which I thought was dead and gone as she probably did too as well as Fox. He tweeted out some pictures of me, he said he’s going take the third and fourth film and act like they never happened and things blew up. It looked like it was all go and then Ridley Scott decided that he was going to do a second and third film in the PROMETHEUS series, but Sigourney says they are still doing their project.

I don’t know when it’s going to happen but I know it’s going to happen and I know I’m going to be in it and there’s going to be a new Newt, she’s going to be about 26 or 27 and looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence to me but I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a passing of whatever and then the franchise can move on so they can make more money because that’s what it’s all about.”

Late last year it was announced that Blomkamp’s ALIEN movie was put on hold, but just last month he sent out a promising tweet hinting that it was still very much a thing. Biehn himself seems very confident that the movie is coming, but that clearly things with Scott and his PROMETHEUS movies have possibly complicated things a bit. Still, given everything that has been going on news-wise regarding ALIEN 5, I find Biehn’s confidence assuring. All we need now is less concept art and more production photos to seal the deal. That being said, here’s more concept art featuring Biehn.