Ridley Scott Considers a Digitally De-Aged Ripley

I love Weaver, But I think it is time to move on. The story arc seems to be more about David anyway.

Agreed. Maybe in passing they can show her with the Nostromo but I agree that David is whom we should focus on, he is the key to the whole story and Ripley is victim basically the causes and actions of  David.

Using Weaver at this point seems to suggest a "fate" vibe instead of during Alien, she was just a victim of circumstance. I don't care for anyone being Ripley's mother/relative in prequals either for similar reasons. I think she could have worked for Alien 5 but that sounds less likely every day.

Agreed. That ship has sailed. Ripley and the Nostromo just happened to be a victim in Weyland Yutani's ploy to retrieve what David created.

Oh God Please No!

Maybe yes if they do decide to resurrect Alien 5 but i hope we dont get no Prequels with her in, and throw some alternative things in like the Alien Novel River of Pain did?

If they have to do it with regards to doing a Aliens Sequel, then as long as its done well then fair enough, but to get to Star Wars Rogue One Tarkin or Terminator Genisys T-800 does cost a lot of Money, and if they are to attempt this level  and have more than 30 Minutes of Screen Time, the Budget for such a Digitally De-age job could be HUGE...

This is a stretch, but the only way I could  imagine Weaver in a movie is possibly in the last prequel where WY mentions a crew on a ship and mentions the names of the crew. That is a big stretch too.

I agree to BD, no Weaver. If they need a protagonist for a sequel they could use Captain Brackett, he survived Hadley's Hope and got away (A:RoP). It doesn't always need to be a "Mary Sue".

My bet is that we will see perhaps the implantation of Ash and the Nostromo in passing and maybe Weaver CGI's like Leia was in Rogue One but hey, we will see.

At the end of the last prequel, maybe a shot of a WY suit instructing Ash, "You will board the Nostromo with these instructions not to be shared with the crew. The crew members are..............and Ellen Ripley". This would be a scene that plays after the credits roll.

 @dk "... This would be a scene that plays after the credits roll..." when everyone's left. XD 

Tiwaz- I look at it as rewarding the hard core so to speak. Do not forget the face hugger skitters at the end of the Aliens credits. After credit stuff is not new to movies. I agree that most would leave- screw them!

As much as I love Ripley as a character, in all truth her story should have ended with A3. Resurrection was just milking the cash cow, and anything else seems superfluous. I really don't want to see another ALIEN flick with Ripley as the lead.

*Edited for a stupid typo.

why not, Ripley character is more interesting than David or Shaw, Now I m asking myself real purpose, where s to fit this idea? After AC? or after NOSTROMO?

just no. Remember they tried that in Terminator Salvation with Arnie and it awful.

@Tiwaz, Yeah Cpt Brackett was an ok bloke. What ever happened to Chris Hooper in A:OotS, still floating around LV178?

No.

@IRaptus I'd wager Hooper is dead. If I'm not mistaken the Marion was going to crash on LV-178 with no means of escape for him.

Ripley had her time, and honestly even though A3 is tolerable they should have moved on from her after Aliens. 

Having her exist in the films now is not necessary nor does it add anything to the story telling, the only thing it does is quiet the cries of fan boys that needlessly want references or call backs to the older films. Having her makes it more predictable and i would prefer that the Alien Film Universe move on without Ripley she had her time.....and the Alien Film Universe needs new characters and unchartered territory not excessively  reusing characters like the Die Hard or the Terminator franchise....let Ripley rest in peace, please please do not shoehorn her back into this film universe

@Tiwaz from memory didn't he escape the Marion in an EEV and was floating around the planet hoping to be found one day?

@Iraptus - Ooops, you're right. I forgot bout that. Maybe he is still alive but I wouldn't count on it.

Hoops fate was uncertain, but his chances of survival were pretty slim.

As for Ripley being de-aged, if it suits the story and can be done properly effects wise I don't see a problem.

I liked Hoops character. He was down-trodden with a chippa attitude, the complete opposite of Ripley. Had a similar vibe to Mark Watney in The Martian (book), a survivor. He would've made a good protagonist going forward. 

With all this neomorph, protomorph and pseudomorph shenanigans, l for one could do with going back to the source materials, and the end of Aliens (as a 'jumping off point'). So bring on Alien 5, with the real, old-age Ripley and a smart continuation of the story.

@Grinning & Dropping Linen

"Having her exist in the films now is not necessary nor does it add anything to the story telling"

How do we know it wasn't planned all along?  It can potentially add to the story in certain ways.  Something big may happen in Covenant that has potential to change how we view it all.

Sigourney, Ridley, and James Cameron began discussing her return years ago.  By the time Weaver spoke to Blomkamp on the set of Chappie, she'd already discussed Ripley's story with Cameron.  Even as far back as the filming of Avatar, she tried to get James Cameron back on board.  Cameron may have been forced to keep what he knows about the upcoming films a secret.  He told us to wait & see what happens with Ridley's film(s), before we decide if more ALIEN films are necessary.  

@Stan Winston

I'm thinking they'll only reverse Ripley's aging a little bit to make her more practical than special effects.  We likely won't see "young Ripley" in any of the prequels.  The digital de-aging would simply be to make her look a little younger.  There might still be this idea for ALIEN 5, even though Blomkamp will no longer be involved with that project (due to the new direction the studio is heading in).  If they're going to do it, they want to do it before Sigourney Weaver gets much older. 

It's Weaver herself who was coming up with many of the ideas for her return and bouncing them off of Blomkamp.  It's not really due to the demand of the fans.  Letting Blomkamp work with some of the ideas and add his voice to the discussions resulted in a few things that the studio liked.  But ultimately, Blomkamp's version of ALIEN 5 wasn't going to line up.  

Ridley Scott doesn't want the Universe to go the way of the superhero films:  he would rather follow the Star Wars model and release one film per year.  Now that Sigourney Weaver is done serving her time with Marvel Studios, she's available to film with either him or Cameron.  She really wants to be part of this thing they're doing.  Ridley wants to turn the franchise into something that pulls in the same amount at the box office as the Star Wars and Marvel films do each year.  At the same time, he doesn't want the ALIEN franchise to devolve back into comic book movie territory; he just wants to compete with the other sci-fi franchises and offer things that those films lack.  

ALIEN has always been sci-fi/horror, and it's more of a hard sci-fi series than something like Star Wars.  An interconnected ALIEN universe fills a certain void that other franchises can't. It's only natural that Weaver wants to play a role in it.  Her main reason for not returning before was because the studio kept trying to set the film on Earth (Whedon's ALIEN 5 & AVP).  

I respectfully disagree about Ripley. She does not need shoehorned back into this film universe nor does it serve the Alien film universe by doing so. Having her back in these film or prequels would not make sense, nor would having movies post Aliens with her. I loved her character in Alien and Aliens, but she has had her logical inclusion in this universe and even some unneccessary inclusion (Alien Resurrection which was a hot garbage shoehorning her way to be in another Alien movie). Her talks with Cameron do not matter as he isnt the visionary for this film universe, that is Ridley and the tone that Ridley has set for this film universe. Cameron's Aliens although a wonderful action movie and a great film in its own right actually took a different tone and did things that lessened the impact and watered down the Alien species to just mean dangerous insects.

Having Ripley in further movies would seem contrived and would end up and seem similar to something like Alien Resurrection. The whole idea and things going on with these Ridley prequels is expanding the mythology and expanding the universe these films are set in, that doesnt really work to have Sigourney show back up, ....we are trying to expand the mythology and worlds and species but due to some misguided nostalgia they somehow run back into her or find a way to force her to be part of the storyline...which if you are honest doesnt fit in prequels or even if sequels are created....keep Sigourney out, she has played her part well, but to force her back in is a detriment to the tone and elements they are trying to create.

The ALIEN life cycle was always partially based on the life cycles of certain insects.  Except that the Marines are wrong about them being similar to ants:  Marines are the ants in the analogy. We've been looking at some of those ideas all wrong.

To be clear, I'm not talking about something like Daniels being revealed to be Ripley's MUTHUR:  some of the ideas they've looked at are more interesting.  That to me, is shoehorning her into the series.  The goal is to learn from the mistakes of the Star Wars prequels.  If they wanted things tied up neatly in a bow, they wouldn't be doing what they're doing.  The symbol of the ALIEN eating its own tail is important to the company...

The filmmakers consider ALIEN: Resurrection to be canon (like it or not), and Cameron has impacted the ALIEN 5 discussions over the years.  They weren't prepared to let Neil Blomkamp completely ignore ALIEN 3 the way he wanted to. There are a number of new concepts that they can establish in the prequel films, which can actually change the way we view Resurrection (in light of learning more about the quest for immortality in Prometheus, genetic siblings, hybrids etc).

Yes, they're expanding the franchise and building a bigger mythos that revolves around many new characters; however, there are ways Ripley can add to the story if she returns to the Universe she helped create.  All it takes is someone like Ridley or Cameron working with talented writers who know where to take the story.  She doesn't even need to play a major role. The torch will be passed to a new character.  Simply seeing Ripley again as part of a nostalgia factor won't cut it:  that's partially why Blomkamp's project was halted.  If they did Blomkamp's film, that would have been more about what the fans want.  This is more about what Weaver herself wants. She feels that they left Ripley's story in a bad spot and wants to give her a proper sendoff before moving on with the series.

I had a chance to speak with Sigourney at one of the comic expos, and she was VERY interested in returning.  Back then, ALIEN 5 was starting to be considered by the studio again.

So it's not like the filmmakers were twisting her arm to be part of it, or forcing the actress into it.  She's an active part of the discussions about what she wants to see happen.

What I'm mostly trying to say is that Sigourney was the one making most of those discussions about ALIEN 5 possible.  If Ridley can fit her into the prequels/sequels in a logical way, then she'll return.  But she does want the story to be better than ALIEN 3 & Resurrection.  It's easy to pretend Alien vs. Predator doesn't exist, but the studio would like us to keep certain ideas, such as Ripley's sacrifice in Alien 3, in mind.

In the new mythos they're building, we can't really rule out that the ALIEN is a zombie.  At one point in the original, Ripley thought the ALIEN was dead and that we could rule out the creature being a zombie (or possessing some hidden ability to trick its own head back to life).  So it may turn out the creature itself is the key to the immortality, and the DNA that hybridized with her hair brought Ripley back only to kill her again.  If the ex W-Y scientists hadn't taken the Queen out of her, then she wouldn't have had the mother-daughter bond.

I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.

LOL I'm not so sure about it now.  Was "Zombie Fifield" actually alive, or was he dead?  We never saw all of what happened to him when the DNA started morphing him.  There was Alien DNA inside those Urns, and it started doing something weird.

I think the worm's naturally high regen factor was enhanced when hybridized with the Alien DNA.  Acid blood is a trait all forms of the creature appear to share.  Fifield & Millburn didn't have time to contemplate the way the hammerpede regrew its own head so quickly.  They missed out on the immortality. Even if Fifield's body was still showing faint signals of life in his zombified form, would we really call that an existence?  

So yeah, sometimes the bioweapon might be able to bring people back from the dead.  The cloning science has existed since the 90s (and is based on real-world science), but all the scientists aboard the Auriga would have needed to do was give Ripley a little push.  In Covenant, we might see that some of them can tap into an ability to essentially not die easily. 

The ALIEN could behave much like the bird in the Prometheus myth:  Zeus’ faction of Engineers may have altered it to punish Prometheus for all eternity.  The creature eats away at the Titan's insides until he’s dead, then it brings poor Prometheus back to life the next morning to start the whole cycle over...  

Tiny fungus-like spores could have the ability to turn the ants into mindless zombies that walk around in the zombie-fifield state - until baby wasps suddenly burst out of their heads.  The Marines wouldn't see the headburster types coming, because they're not aware the infection moves through the spine, the central nervous system, their hair etc.  A bunch of Marines suddenly become the ants in the analogy, while W-Y private security forces learns more about the smaller types that occasionally burst from peoples' eyes, like with Holloway...

Nowhere, anywhere, have i seen where filmmakers, Ridley most importantly, consider Alien Resurrection to be canon. 

I understand how Sigourney's ego wants to send her character off in a better light than it ended with in A3 and AR but thats her and her alone. It doesnt make sense for a studio to foot the bill on an Alien film project just so Ripley can have a character she played sign off in a more accepted cinematic way. Thats like what if Arnold wanted to do another Terminator so he can go out with a bang instead of how the last few Terminators ended up....its not logical.

The Alien film universe isnt Cameron's it is Ridley's. In fact although i can tell you disagree i feel introducing a queen and making the Alien creatures cannon fodder isnt as awesome as having the Alien be some ancient cosmic creation of some older than old entity. That being said Aliens is one of my favorite movies of all time, but i still know that this film universe works best when its in the tone of Ridley's films and most definitely not the trash that is AR or the AVP movies.

If you think of what they can do with Ripley now especially after Prometheus and soon Alien Covenant, there is no way to bring her back into the fold that wont be contrived or seem implausible or seem like a rehash.

* If you count A3 then she is dead and there is no where to go

* Including AR seems ridiculous as that movie is garbage

* Not counting A3 and having a movie take place after Aliens with her seems implausible, what are the odds that she would yet again run into this organism in the vastness of space....doing so is akin to Die hard part 54 or whatever it is, anything like this would be would be predictable and not fresh and seem forced. I mean she is not gonna go the route of being a consultant again, the odds of her running into the organism in space again seems remote and if she does it seems a bit far fetched 

* She had no knowledge of the xenomorph or Aliens/juggernauts/derelicts etc before the movie Alien, up to this point in her life she was just a space trucker...so including her in any of the prequels does not make any sense at all unless you just want a movie about some tall old chic who has her looks "deaged" transporting rocks, because that is all she could bring to the story in any prequels, and keep in mind she has zero, thats NO knowledge of Aliens or any of this before they set the Nostromo down on LV426 in Alien...doesnt make any rational or logical sense

*We know where she was in between Alien and Aliens (frozen like a popsicle) so there is no chance of doing a movie set between these points even if they "de-age" her

Any points after Aliens or even Alien 3 make no sense, besides the fact that it would be contrived and seem forced... and would not benefit the story of this film universe, this world is better left to new characters, ideals and stories. Points before Alien in any prequels make no sense due to the fact she never encountered are little biomechanical monster or anything like it before that point. 

In conclusion including Sigourney in any further Alien Universe movies makes no sense....

* prequels it is illogical to include her

* After Alien and before Aliens, she was on ice so nope that doesnt work

* Honestly anything after Aliens whether you count A3 and AR or not seems forced as the odds of her running into this species again are beyond remote and i dont want to see it again, at least not with her, i and most of the audience have seen that, we dont want to see her interactions in this film universe, we want new and expanded mythology and stories...more Ripley does not do that

* Mention of Cameron does matter to me as he is far removed from the Alien Film Universe as it stands

* Ripley served to Alien films very well but having her in a film or having another film about her just because she wants one or is interested in having her character have a more palatable ending would be a poor decision by any studio

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