The Rules of Alien5

Greetings friends!

So the other morning I had my attention drawn to http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/alien/34304/alien-5-to-ignore-alien-3-and-alien-resurrection
- Yeah I know I'm a little late. I started writing this on Thursday but due to some time off work it was pushed back.

Now I would recommend reading this article and then giving it a bit of thought.

Clearly the article itself is click-bait. What is really being said is that the supposed Alien 5 will actually be set between Aliens & Alien3.

Alien3 and Alien: Resurrection happened. No matter what anyone's personal opinions on these may be, they happened and they are canon. So what we will actually see is something set in the middle of them both.

We saw something similar in Aliens: Colonial Marines with the Stasis Interrupted DLC. This featured events in between the two films and was remotely clever enough to allow for the events of Alien3 to play out despite what happened in itself.

Now if Alien 5 is going to be set between these two films, then it also needs to be set before Stasis Interrupted which is also official canon, and while Stasis Interrupted allows the events of Alien3 to happen, the events are important enough that they wouldn't allow Alien 5 to happen - it's very specific, ignore the bitching and moaning and play the game to see for yourself.

So if we are going to see this film set between Aliens and Stasis Interrupted, what rules does Alien 5 need to follow?

- Ripley, Newt & Hicks must survive.
Yup, these characters are still alive in Stasis Interrupted so they need to end Alien 5 alive as well.

- The Sulaco must not be destroyed.

- Ripley, Newt & Hicks must end in the same stasis tubes on the Sulaco.

- No DNA-Reflex Aliens! While it is canon that the Alien adapts itself based on it's host, Ripley must not see the results of this in Alien 5. This is a requirement for her comment in Alien3 about the Alien being something new that she had never seen before making sense. While it would still apply as long as there are no dog/cow aliens, however if she was aware of the DNA Reflex, then her comment instead would be more along the lines of:
"Yeah, they do that".

- Wayland Yutani can not attack the Sulaco until the very end.
This is where Stasis Interrupted begins. Way-Yu attempt to take possession of the Sulaco but fail. So it happens but can not happen until the survivors are back from the events of Alien 5 and back in Cryosleep.

- Ripley, Newt & Hicks must feature somehow in the film. This will probably be in the form of at least one of the characters remaining in stasis, but considering the relationship at the end of Aliens, there is no way they would not be brought up at least once.

- The cargo bay from the end of Aliens must remain exactly as it was at the end of Alien.
We return to this location in A:CM which in the main game is set after Alien3, so in order for us to do so, it must remain as-is including having Bishop's legs left where they were.

- Must be between Lv426 and Fury162.
In Aliens it took 2 weeks to travel from Gateway station near Earth to Acheron and it's moon LV426. At the end of Aliens they were travelling back but never reached the desired destination when the sleep pods were jettisoned to Fury161, meaning Fury161 is somewhere within the 2 week travel time between Gateway and Lv426. Alien5 needs to be set somewhere physically between the two, and more importantly no more than at the very most - 2 weeks, must have passed between Aliens and Alien 5.

- No Company Knowledge of Surviving Aliens.
It has been suggested that Alien 5 will feature a new world with Aliens on them including a hive and queen. If for any reason Way-Yu know about this then it must be destroyed at the end of Alien 5, otherwise there would be no reason for Way-Yu to think the Alien in Ripley in Alien3 was the last of it's kind.

I'm sure I have missed more, but by my workings; as long as these rules are followed then Alien 5 is able to be set when the director intends and will not screw with the existing timeline. How they will explain the 25+ years age difference is anyone's guess.

Of course it is possible they could simply claim that Alien3 and Colonial Marines never happened, and considering how flippant FOX are over their IP pride I really wouldn't put it past them.

Likewise, while Weaver has gone on the record for saying that she would love to give Ripley a "proper finish", I remember her saying something very similar about Alien: Resurrection, despite now snubbing both Alien3 and Resurrection which she was at the time of their release more than happy to promote these films as good instalments.
- To me this means that Weaver's integrity really only stems as far as the next pay cheque. I'll take everything she says with an iceberg of salt; thank you very much.

And on that skyisfalling note; stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley