Disney's New Alien Movie Avoids A Problem That Hurt 4 Other Horror Franchise Reboots

While Alien: Romulus won’t feature the Alien franchise’s original heroine, Ellen Ripley, this is secretly good news for the reboot. The Alien franchise has been through many screen incarnations, but only its first few outings boast one of sci-fi cinema’s most legendary heroines. 1979’s original Alien introduced viewers to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, a resilient warrant officer who ended up being the only survivor when a Xenomorph was let loose aboard the Nostromo. Aliens made Ripley an action icon as director James Cameron’s follow-up armed her to the teeth and pitted her against the Alien Queen.

1990’s disappointing Alien 3 killed off Ripley when she sacrificed herself to destroy the last Xenomorph, but 1997’s middling Alien: Resurrection brought her back via some far-fetched cloning. Since Ripley has been revived once before, it would be understandable for viewers to assume that 2024’s upcoming Alien reboot Alien: Romulus might see the heroine return once again. However, Alien: Romulus’s place in Alien‘s timeline means that Ripley can’t come back, since she is in cryogenic stasis throughout the events of the movie. A standalone survival horror story, Alien: Romulus takes place between Alien and Aliens.

Alien: Romulus Dropping Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley Is The Right Choice

The Franchise Can’t Afford To Bring Back Sigourney Weaver’s Heroine

While viewers might be disappointed by this news, Alien: Romulus made the right choice by keeping Ripley out of the sequel’s story. Alien: Romulus can afford to be much more ruthless without Ripley’s return since viewers will have no idea which characters are likely to survive and which ones will die. Not only that, but a string of earlier horror franchise reboots that brought back their final girls went on to regret this choice. Reviving a final girl can seem like a fun nod for nostalgic audience members, but this can often derail a reboot’s entire plot and ruin the stakes of its story.

The returning final girl trend began in 2018 when director David Gordon Green brought Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode back in his Halloween reboot. This critically acclaimed slasher retconned the Halloween sequels, acting as a direct follow-up to the original 1978 cult classic. Similarly, Alien: Romulus’s timeline position means it could have ignored Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection to bring back Ripley by waking Weaver’s character from her cryogenic stasis. However, this would have been a terrible idea, as proven by the follow-ups to 2018’s Halloween and the many subsequent slasher reboots that copied its Final Girl comeback.

Four Other Horror Franchise Reboots Have Failed Their Original Final Girls

A String of High-Profile Final Girl Comebacks Failed

Since 2018’s Halloween reboot revived Laurie Strode, four more high-profile horror franchise reboots have brought back their original Final Girls and none have succeeded critically. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends ruined Laurie Strode’s big comeback, with the former leaving Curtis’s character stranded in hospital and the latter dragging out her final confrontation with Michael Myers. 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre killed off the franchise’s original heroine, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Sally Hardesty, with no fanfare after wasting a stretch of screen time building up her return. Meanwhile, Scream 2022’s Sidney Prescott comeback repeated Halloween’s sequel mistake.

The potential perils of Alien: Romulus bringing back Ripley were perfectly illustrated when Scream 2022 revived Neve Campbell’s iconic heroine. Sidney appeared in the sequel and played a pivotal supporting role, but mostly existed to prop up the franchise’s new heroines, Sam and Tara Carpenter. This seemed to work well until a pay dispute between Campbell and the studio resulted in Scream VI dropping Sidney and insulting her legacy. Later the same year, The Exorcist: Believer brought back Ellen Burstyn’s Exorcist heroine, only to then inexplicably blind her character. These failures prove how bad Ripley’s return could have been.

Ripley’s Previous Alien Franchise Comeback Was Underwhelming

Alien: Resurrection Left A Lot To Be Desired

If these many horror franchise reboots didn’t provide enough evidence, viewers need to look no further than the Alien sequels to see how bad a Ripely comeback might turn out. 1997’s Alien: Resurrection brought back Ripley and failed to regain critical acclaim since the convoluted plot mechanics required to revive her were silly and her character was technically not even the original Ripley, but rather a clone. A lot went wrong with Alien: Resurrection, but one of the sequel’s earliest errors was focusing on getting Ripley back above telling a solid story. Alien: Romulus looks set to avoid this misstep.

Even before Alien: Resurrection failed to find a good excuse for reviving Ripley, her third Alien franchise appearance had already let down critics. Alien 3 could have been better if Ripley wasn’t its heroine since the sequel wouldn’t have needed to kill off Newt and Hicks in its opening scene. If Alien 3 had let a Xenomorph loose on a prison ship without involving Ripley, the sequel might not have annoyed fans and critics as much and could have succeeded as a standalone story. This is exactly what Alien: Romolus’s self-contained story could still pull off.

Alien’s Timeline Means You Shouldn’t Expect A Ripley Cameo (But There’s A Catch)

Alien: Romulus Can’t Bring Back Ripley But It Can Connect To Her Story

Alien: Romulus’ placement between Alien and Aliens effectively means that a surprise cameo from Ripley is impossible. That said, Alien: Romulus could still tie into the events of those movies, which may give rise to a connection with Ripley’s story. The characters of the new movie might come across a distress call left behind by the Nostromo, or they could end up discussing the aftermath of the massacre that Ripely survived. The movie’s synopsis suggests that the crew is a set of space scavengers, so the odds are good that they will be familiar with the story of Ellen Ripley.

Unlike Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels, Alien: Romulus can reference Ripley since her original movie storyline has already happened in the movie’s universe. However, the reboot can’t bring her back in person and this is a good thing. Judging by his earlier efforts, Fede Alvarez’s sci-fi horror movie will pull no punches and viewers shouldn’t go into an Alien movie knowing who will and won’t survive. If Weaver’s Ripley returned, fans would inevitably either be annoyed that she was killed or annoyed that she predictably survived. Thus, Alien: Romulus made the right decision when the Alien reboot decided not to bring back the franchise’s iconic heroine.

Alien: Romulus

Director

Fede Alvarez

Release Date

August 16, 2024

Studio(s)

Scott Free Productions , 20th Century

Writers

Fede Alvarez , Rodo Sayagues

Cast

Cailee Spaeny , David Jonsson , Archie Renaux , Isabela Merced , Aileen Wu , Spike Fearn