How do you want Alien 5 to open?

[shakermakerman]

I vision the sulaco heading back to gateway nostromo style then a cut scene to Ripley, Hicks and newt waking up from cryo sleep.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Hicks: Damn Ripley, you look just like I feel.

Ripley: You look positively ancient Hicks, what gives?

Hicks: Whoah! Who's this hot blonde in the cryotube next to me!

[whiterabbit]

Hicks: Damn Ripley, you look just like I feel.

Ripley: You look positively ancient Hicks, what gives?

Hicks: Whoah! Who's this hot blonde in the cryotube next to me!

Wow, that's a shockingly frightful possibility.

[shakermakerman]

Hicks: Damn Ripley, you look just like I feel.

Ripley: You look positively ancient Hicks, what gives?

Hicks: Whoah! Who's this hot blonde in the cryotube next to me!

you like them with a not of meat on em then? 

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

I thought Juno Temple was already officially confirmed to play adult Newt? 

[NetworkATTH]

The Sulaco getting picked up ala the Narcissus getting picked up in Aliens

[HuDaFuK]

Chestbursters erupting out of Ripley, Hicks and Newt as they lie in cryo.

[CainsSon]

Hicks: Damn Ripley, you look just like I feel.

Ripley: You look positively ancient Hicks, what gives?

Hicks: Whoah! Who's this hot blonde in the cryotube next to me!

Wow, that's a shockingly frightful possibility.

This is actually kind of a great idea.

[Deacs1973]

Hicks: Damn Ripley, you look just like I feel.

Ripley: You look positively ancient Hicks, what gives?

Hicks: Whoah! Who's this hot blonde in the cryotube next to me!

Surely if they have aged and grown in their cryogenic tubes then Newts clothes are going to be way too small

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Nah, she was dressed in one of the marine's t-shirts before she went to sleep.

[stroggificated]

Ripley and Hicks at the breakfast table talking about her adult adoptive daughter Newt.

Then she visits them as Angelina Jolie 

[Xenomorphine]

I wouldn't even dare to hazard a guess, because we still don't know how or if the third and fourth films will somehow play a part in this.

Someone around here proposed maybe random clips from them both, as a segue into showing the dream-recording device from 'Prometheus' being used to try and learn from Ripley's memories. That'd be valid. But, again, that's if they go down the route of canonising them as dreams. It could just as easily be something completely different to that idea.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

They could half-way acknowledge A3 as what actually happened mixed with altered memories.

Let's say that mercenaries were hired by Burke to board the Sulaco all along. The mercs board the ship while Rip & Co are in cryo sleep. The mercs enter the cryo tube area and start to awaken Rip & Co, starting with Hicks & Newt. But before they have the chance to awaken Ripley, the mercs are attacked by facehuggers. Fire alarm goes off and Ripley's and Bishop's tubes are ejected.

Hicks & Newt are transported onboard the mercenary ship and leave as the acid from the killed Facehuggers starts eating through the hull.

Ripley ends up on Fiorina 161, but without Hicks & Newt. Everything that happened in A3 happened except for the morgue scene, the funeral scene and Ripley's sacrifice - all that are altered memories.

In reality the funeral was for two dead inmates, the dissection was not on Newt but on a mystically dead ox. Ripley did run into a W-Y executive and his Special Ops team, but in reality it wasn't Bishop, and was caught before she had the time to commit suicide.

W-Y keeps Ripley (who is officially reported as dead) on ice. They harvest the queen embryo inside of her. Despite the comatose Ripley still shows life signs and they decide to stitch her up and stove her away. They use mind altering drugs and technologies (similar to the stuff in PROM) to extract as much information from her as possible, and since she survived the embryo surgery she is also of medical interest. W-Y perform experiments on Ripley, imprisoned in here altered state. She dreams, or more like patches together what happens to her, which is A:R.

The merc ship with Hicks & Newt on board is intercepted by the authorities. Burke is single-handedly blamed for everything that happened, W-Y gets of scott-free, Newt is sent to an orphanage or foster family (closely observed by W-Y of course), and Hicks is kicked out of the marine core and has to serve a few years in prison for whatever BS reason.

FFW a few years and there we go - A5.

They don't have to show flashbacks from A:R and A3. It could just be mentioned and hinted at, or even display it as abstract and blurry soundscapes, close-ups etc.

The opening scene could be the space station that a drunken and haggard older Hicks works at as a janitor or security guard a la OUTLAND.

Still sucks, I know. But I think it's way less sucky than a cheap in-your-face retcon.

[Close Encounters]

I imagine that Alien 5 will begin with a shot of something in space. Every Alien movie up till now has done so, and I see no reason for that to change. Other than that, I feel very confident that the first 5-10 minutes will have nothing at all to do with Ripley, Newt or Hicks. Totally new characters, totally new setting to give us a little bit of background into the story.

[HuDaFuK]

Let's say that mercenaries were hired by Burke to board the Sulaco all along...

This all just brings back ugly memories of Colonial Marines. Which is the last thing I want the new film to remind me of.