Neill Blomkamp's Aliens sequel looks like it will resurrect Newt

After Sigourney Weaver assured us that the backburnered movie will be "worth the wait", interest in Neill Blomkamp's Aliens sequel has fired up again this past week. The proposed film is said to take place after the 1986 actioner, but apparently won't completely ignore the events of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. How he plans to navigate around that minor hurdle is still a mystery, but that's not stopping Blomkamp from teasing us about the cast of characters set to appear. To coincide with Alien Day the director has now posted a new piece of concept art:

Yes, that's a grown-up Newt. The kid who survived all alone on a planet overrun by aliens, only to perish offscreen between Aliens and Alien 3. It's awesome to see her decked out in combat gear, ready to tussle with the acid-blooded beasties. The pic syncs up with Michael Biehn's comments last year, when he revealed that the film will mark the return of his character - Hicks - and an adult Newt.

Again, how exactly Blomkamp plans to resurrect these two very dead characters without retconning the events of the third and fourth movies is a bit of a headscratcher. In the licensed Dark Horse comics series, released shortly after Aliens, the pair teamed up again for another close encounter. Once Alien 3 hit cinemas, future printings changed both their names so as to avoid continuity problems. Still, might Blomkamp be mining the comics for inspiration?