Sigourney Weaver is seriously considering reprising one of her best-known roles after reading an “extraordinary” script featuring a potential new storyline for her character.
Weaver, 76, shot to fame for her lead role as hero Ellen Ripley in the first four films of the beloved sci-fi horror Alien franchise. She originated the part in Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien and last appeared in 1997’s Alien: Resurrection, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Speaking Friday at a New York Comic Con panel, the Oscar-nominated actor revealed that her good friend, producer Walter Hill, has written a 50-page script about where Ripley would be now.
“They are quite extraordinary,” Weaver said of the script pages, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney, or whoever it is now.”
She admitted that while she “never felt the need” to continue her character’s storyline, Hill’s script made her rethink her position.
“I was always like, ‘Let her rest, let her recover.’ But what Walter has written seems so true to me as very much about the society that would incarcerate someone who has tried to help mankind,” she explained.
“She’s a problem to them, so she’s sort of tucked away,” Weaver said of her character. “Anyway, I think it’s a very strong first 50 pages, and I’m thinking about working with Walter to see what the rest of the story would be.”
In the franchise’s third film, Alien 3 (1992), helmed by David Fincher, Weaver’s Ripley dies after sacrificing herself by leaping into a furnace to kill a queen alien growing inside her. She is later resurrected after 200 years as a clone with Xenomorph DNA in the fourth movie.
Since Alien: Resurrection, three more films have been added to the core Alien series, including Prometheus (2012), Alien: Covenant (2017) and Alien: Romulus (2024), along with two crossover films: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and AVP: Alien vs. Predator — Requiem (2007).
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Weaver was originally supposed to return as Ripley in Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5, but the sequel was ultimately scrapped by Fox’s 20th Century Studios.
She has previously vocalized her disinterest in making another Alien movie, saying in 2023, “that ship has sailed.”
“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,” she told Total Film at the time. “I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I put in my time in space!”
