Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn in Aliens. Image: Fox

Simply put, Ellen Ripley is the Alien franchise. Even though her adversary gets the title, Ripley is the star of the first four films, and her story is what ties everything together. So the fact that director Ridley Scott has an idea to work her back into his films isn’t a surprise. But the way he wants to do it might be.


In a new interview, Scott was asked if he’d ever use technology to make actress Sigourney Weaver look younger for one of his Alien prequels. He didn’t sound like that was likely, but he did lay out plan to tie her into everything, which he’d do through her parents. Here’s the video.


Here’s the quote transcribed in case the clip doesn’t work:

We’re heading toward the back end of the first Alien so [using CG] may be feasible. I don’t think it’ll... but Ripley’s going to be somebody’s daughter. Obviously. We’re coming in from the back end. The time constraints, of what’s the time between this film, where we leave David going off heading for that colony, I think you’re probably two films out from even considering her.

So does that mean he’d do two films before introducing her parents or introducing her? It’s unclear. What’s interesting, though, is that this answer makes Scott sound pretty confident there will be more Alien films. Covenant was not a hit in the US but has done well overseas, grossing over $230 million total. Even so, it’s still almost $200 million away from the $403 million total of Prometheus, a success that allowed Covenant to get made in the first place. Simple logic would suggest that if Scott really thinks it will take two more films to introduce Ripley, or her family, that’s probably not going to happen.

Do you think there’s even a chance we get two more Alien prequels? If so, do you want to see Ripley or her family get introduced? Or is it just better if she’s a character unrelated to the xenomorphs?


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