Sigourney Weaver Teases Ripley Returning… Possible!
Sigourney Weaver teases the possibility of Ripley returning — and it actually sounds worth listening to.
At New York Comic Con, Weaver revealed that veteran writer-producer Walter Hill has written the first 50 pages of a script that revisits an older Ellen Ripley. Weaver admitted she’d long thought Ripley should be left alone — “let her rest, let her recover” — but called Hill’s opening “a very strong first 50 pages.” The premise, as she describes it, is deliciously bleak and very Alien: a society that punishes the woman who tried to save humanity because she’s inconvenient to those in power.
“I was always like let her rest, let her recover. But what Walter has written first of all seems so true to me. It’s about a society who would incarcerate someone who’s tried to help mankind but she’s a problem for them…”
Weaver was frank about the project’s status: there’s hope but no certainty. She’s met with “Fox, or Disney or whoever it is now,” she said, but whether it moves forward remains up in the air. That’s par for the course with this franchise: projects shimmer into view only to fade, then reappear in new shapes. Neill Blomkamp’s much-talked-about Alien 5 — a direct sequel to Aliens — died on the vine; now there’s talk of sequels to 2024’s Alien: Romulus and a possible Season 2 for Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth at FX. The universe keeps turning, even if the path forward is messy. It may even be the case that Hill’s script is the very same Blomkamp project that fell apart.
One thing is for sure, what ever the project is (or was) it was certainly a direct sequel to either Alien or Aliens, consider Ripley’s demise in Alien 3. The main thing here is that Sigourney Weaver isn’t closing the door. She’s seen promising pages and had talks. Whether Hollywood’s decision-makers give this the green light is another story. But if there’s to be one true Ripley comeback, this sounds like the sort of thoughtful, character-driven entry she deserves — and one that could, at last, pay off the decades of dread, glory, and xenomorph teeth that made her a legend.
Hilly Horror
Hilly love of horror knows no bounds. As a massive fan of slasher and ghost films, she has watched all of the Wrong Turn and Paranormal Activity films. Now that’s bravery at a scale we can’t beat.
