With the announcement of William Gibson's Alien 3 does this reopen the discussion of a divergent timeline after Neill Blomkamp's Alien film faded away, which was to follow a different timeline than Alien 3.
After the events of Aliens when Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop enter the cryotubes of the USS Sulaco and begin the journey back to Earth this is where the divergence of timelines first occurs. In the main timeline the events of Alien 3 take place and therefore Alien Resurrection, Sea of Sorrows, Weyland Yutani Report etc.
In the secondary timeline the events of William Gibson's Alien 3 take place and due to a navigational error, the ship drifts into an area of space controlled by the "Union of Progressive Peoples" approximately 4-5 years after Aliens.
In a third divergent timeline upon returning to Earth they are quarantined. Hicks is reassigned, removed from active duty and imprisoned whilst Newt is sent to live with her grandparents but is eventually instated in a mental hospital. The events of the comics follow and Blomkamp's Alien could've potentially worked in somewhere.
Having these separate timelines existing side by side would untangle lots of contradictions in the EU and allow for some unique story angles.
