Recently at New York Comic Con, Sigourney Weaver revealed that she has been in talks with Disney about future exploits in the Alien franchise. Apparently, Walter Hill has even written 50 pages on what the character would be up to. And that started a slew of articles and YouTube videos. Would Ripley Return?! But I can’t help but think: in the midst of all these absolute duds otherwise known as Legacy Sequels, do we honestly need the return of Ripley? Especially when the franchise is doing pretty well for itself currently?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Sigourney Weaver and the Ripley character (hell, my family dog was named after her). She is the ultimate heroine and someone who has made an extreme impact on cinema. But can we just let her rest? She’s already had three (four if you count her clones) films where she’s being absolutely terrorized by the Xenomorph. She’s watched those around her perish and can’t seem to develop a significant relationship/partnership/friendship without them dying from that giant alien. Do we really need more of her?
Plus, how are they even going to explain it? We saw Ripley die at the end of Alien 3. That was the one and true Ripley. We saw some clones of her in Resurrection, so would they continue off of that? Or would they pull a Halloween 2018 and ignore 3 and 4, and just follow up after Aliens (which is what Neill Blomkamp was going to do with his fizzled out Alien project)? Neither prospect really excites me. If the Ripley character would be used, it would just feel like nostalgia bait.
We already saw with Alien Romulus that it makes a lot more sense to feature a new character that features Ripley characteristics and do their own thing, versus just bringing out a legacy character to try and get more eyeballs on the project. It also seems counterproductive to go back to Ripley after we’ve already got a new film established with Romulus. Hell, there’s even the very successful Alien: Earth which is doing just fine without Ripley. It all feels a bit silly to me.
And there’s the obvious age of it all. Weaver is 76 years old and, despite playing a teenager in the Avatar films, isn’t going to have the same vim and vigor playing an older Ripley. Especially since it doesn’t seem like this will be filming anytime soon. And I understand the desire to bring back such a beloved and iconic character. But at what point is enough, enough? Let Ripley go live in peace. She doesn’t need to quarrel with Weyland-Yutani or the Xenomorph even more. We don’t need to find out she spent the last few decades in prison or something equally depressing. Let her ride off into the sunset, and we can imagine a happy ending for her. Because chances are that a man who hasn’t written anything meaningful in 30 years, isn’t going to be the man for the job anyhow.
What do you think? Should Sigourney Weaver return to the role of Ripley? Where would you like to see the franchise go? Let us know in the comments!
The post Do We Really Need Sigourney Weaver Back As Ripley? appeared first on JoBlo.
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