District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has said before that he’d be interested in returning to the world of the aliens in Johannesburg. While his previous comments provoked much sequel speculation, it appears that actually Neill is now thinking more about a prequel.
Talking to the LA Times, he says that “The concept of aliens in Johannesburg is such an appealing idea to me and the issues of race and how they meet. All of the things that I had going on with it. I wouldn’t mind messing around with it again. I’m open to it if the story works and there’s a reason to do it. And [Sharlto Copley’s character] Wikus is so funny to me, I’m very interested in a sort of passive racist like that. If you go forward [with his story beyond District 9] it’s more of a traditional film but if you go backward I’d be intrigued in that. I’m not so interested in aliens coming back and blowing things up but [a prequel] might be interesting.”
Although Blomkamp doesn’t say exactly how backwards far he wants to go, District 9 is kind of interesting in that it does almost feel like the middle of a story. You could go back and see how the aliens arrived or how they became so reviled by the humans, or you could go forward and see whether Christopher Johnson’s mission succeeds. At the moment the plans are all up in the air, but at least in the interview Neill says that he doesn’t want it turned into a videogame or TV show.
A District 9 sequel/prequel would be great, so let’s hope it happens at some point.