Alien Star Sigourney Weaver Rules Out Ellen Ripley Return: ‘That Ship Has Sailed’

It’s the end of the road for Ellen Ripley. After appearing in the first four films of the Alien franchise, Sigourney Weaver had hopes of returning to the role for a new movie from director Neill Blomkamp. Dubbed Alien 5, the film languished in development hell before eventually fizzling out, never to see the light of day. Following the abandonment of that film, new projects have been set up for the Alien franchise, with a new movie in the works at Hulu along with a TV series adaptation at FX Networks.

With new Alien content in development, coupled with the rising popularity of legacy sequels featuring classic characters, it may seem like there’s a good chance Weaver could make one last appearance as Ripley. However, Weaver herself is shutting that down, feeling that the time has passed for that to become a reality. In a new interview with Total Film, she laments how the Blomkamp project was canceled, but at the same time, she’s not harboring regret, as her career is still going just fine with the xenomorphs in the past.

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As Weaver explains:

“There are all kinds of younger actors taking this kind of role. And there was an Alien [film] that I really wanted to do with Neill Blomkamp and we didn’t get to do that, but, you know, that ship has sailed. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I put in my time in space!”

This is certainly unfortunate news for the longtime Alien fans who were hoping to see just a bit more of Ripley in more Alien. For what it’s worth, Weaver did get the chance to revisit the role for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2017. She suited back up as Ripley for a parody trailer for an Alien film that featured Colbert as a problematic clerk, proving to be her most difficult challenge yet. As this will apparently be her last time in the role, it’s definitely still worth watching, even if it’s for a spoof.

Related: Fede Alvarez Celebrates Alien Day by Unveiling First Set Photo for Upcoming Film

What’s Next for Alien?

Fede Alvarez/Twitter

Meanwhile, Alien is getting a new movie from director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe). Now filming in Budapest, the new Alien film will be coming to Hulu for a streaming release, this coming after the Predator prequel Prey drew very high viewership on the streamer. Given how Alien and Predator have tussled multiple times in the past, perhaps the former is taking some notes from the latter on how to resurrect the franchise. The first image from the set was released on Alien Day by Alvarez, shown above.

Separately, there’s a TV series in development at FX Networks. The series comes from Noah Hawley and will also reportedly start filming this year. As with the Hulu film, it has been described as a standalone project, and it is not expected to feature any of the same characters from the previous movies in the franchise. That lends credence to Weaver’s assertion that her time in the Alien world has come to an end.

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