When it was announced that Neill Blomkamp, director of the fantastic District 9, was thinking about helming an Alien sequel, people were cautiously optimistic. While Elysium and Chappie were far from impressive, District 9 is by far his best project, and maybe it would be good for him to get back into movies about extraterrestrial creatures. But, alas, his take on Alien is probably not to be, as the director himself says the chances of him joining the franchise are “Slim.”

Today, when a fan tweeted the question at him, Blomkamp had a monosyllabic response.

Back in July, Sigourney Weaver, who would (somehow) reprise her role as Ripley, was still on board for Blomkamp’s sequel, but admitted that she and the director still had a lot of other projects to get through before his Alien movie could be a definite possibility. According to Variety in September, Weaver pretty much put an end to those rumors, confirming that the sequel had been indefinitely postponed.

He has got work to do, and I have things going on. I hope we do get to do it. It’s one of those things we wanted to do this past year, but I think Ridley [Scott] didn’t want them all coming out at the same time.

It’s true, even if you’re upset about this prospect probably not coming to fruition, we still have a new Alien movie to look forward to, courtesy of Ridley Scott himself. Alien: Covenant, while it won’t star Weaver and is more of a Prometheus sequel itself, is scheduled to hit theaters May 19.

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