Neill Blomkamp Unveils New Concept Art For Alien 5

The revered filmmaker is teasing us yet again. 

Neill Blomkamp, the director behind films like Elysium and District 9, took to Instagram Tuesday evening to release two never-before-seen concept art photos for Alien 5, his planned sequel to James Cameron's Aliens that was ultimately scrapped. 

The first image features a Xenomorph peeking its glossy head through the bottom of a chute, staring up at a Colonial Marine, whose booted foot can be seen slightly hanging over the edge. A different but equally thrilling entity is at the center of the second photo, which shows off a sleek, upgraded dropship. Take a look at both at the end of this article. 

Blomkamp first became attached to Alien 5 when he posted an initial round of concept art (via SlashFilm) for his vision of an Alien follow-up film, one that would serve as a direct sequel to Aliens and wouldn't be linked to director Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Instead, the South African filmmaker's take was to turn a blind eye to Aliens 3 and its subsequent installments. 

Everything fell to pieces not long thereafter, however, and Blomkamp stated that there was a "slim" chance the film would ever be fully realized. Prior to that admission, he explained that Alien 5 is dead, and there's little hope it will be resurrected. "I think it's totally dead, yes. That would be an accurate assumption at this point," said Blomkamp earlier this year. "It's sad. I spent a long time working on that, and I feel like it was really pretty awesome. But politically, the way it's gone now, and the way that it all is–it's just not going to live."

Blomkamp clarified his mentioning of the world "polilitically," explaining that he meant it in terms of "studio politics," and added that he certainly doesn't want to step on Ridley Scott's toes. "Ridley [Scott] was one of my idols growing up. He's so talented and he's made this film that really set me off in a direction. I want to just be as respectful and not go stamping around in this world that he created," he stated. "I think that if the circumstances were different, and I didn't feel like I was getting too close to something that he obviously feels a massive personal connection to, that things that may have played out differently. But I did want to be as respectful as possible."

With Disney acquiring a substantial amount of assets once belonging to 21st Century Fox, which has indefinitely delayed Scott's sequel to Alien: Covenant, some have speculated that Alien 5 could still see the light of day at some point down the line. And while it does make sense that Blomkamp might be using these new posts as a means to rally support for the project and its place in the Alien franchise, we wouldn't be shocked if he was simply playfully taunting fans with what could have been.