Michael Biehn name drops Jessica Chastain as Newt in Neil Blomkamp’s Alien movie

Although Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 remains in the balance because of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel (confusingly titled Alien: Covenant), there is a gallery of artwork available to view online.

Among this gallery, there’s concept art of a 26-year-old Newt, which confirms that the fifth movie will ignore the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

Now 20th Century Fox faces the challenge of casting an older Newt to star alongside Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and Michael Biehn’s Hicks, who has also been reborn thanks to the retcon of the third and fourth movies.

Biehn himself dropped by Belfast Comic-Con on the weekend of May 14th and 15th and during his Saturday Q&A session (which Following the Nerd and our partners in crime Squareeyed.tv attended), discussed Alien 5, intriguingly name-dropping Jessica Chastain when discussing the Newt artwork.

“It’s basically going to cut off three and four while bringing me and Newt back,” Biehn said.

“Newt is 26, 27 and if you look at the artwork he [Blomkamp] put up, it looks like Jessica Chastain, who won the Academy Award last year. Every actress is going to want to play her.

Now, this is where it gets slightly confusing. Although Biehn name-dropped Chastain, she hasn’t won an Oscar before, leading us to believe that he’s getting her mixed up with either Brie Larson or Alicia Vikander, who have both won Oscars this year and are also both 26-27 (Larson is 26, Vikander is 27).

We’re just speculating here and we’re not saying those two actresses are in the frame to play Newt, but if you look at the artwork, it doesn’t look anything like Chastain and you could easily imagine either Larson or Vikander playing her. Considering that Chastain is 39 (meaning she’ll be over 40 by the time Alien 5 finally rolls around), we would assume she won’t be playing her.

Age or look notwithstanding, 20th Century Fox would be very lucky to have either of these three actresses. Larson, Vikander and Chastain are three of the most wonderfully talented leading ladies of their generation and, considering this is an Alien movie, you’d have to think the studio is going to do everything in their power to assemble the most star-studded cast possible.

It’s not the first time names have been thrown about regarding the role of Newt in Alien 5. Last year, when Biehn also spoke about the movie, websites and online forums seemed to favour Emma Stone or Juno Temple for the role. Again, they are two talented actresses who are more than worthy of taking the torch from Weaver and ensuring the future of the beloved sci-fi franchise. Again, there’s nothing official on Stone and Temple, just like Chastain, Vikander and Larson.