One of the many movies celebrating a milestone anniversary this year is the beloved 1986 sci-fi sequelAliens, directorJames Cameron’s follow-up toRidley Scott’s 1979 masterpieceAlien. This franchise is alive and well, withRidley Scottcurrently filmingAlien: Covenant, a follow-up to 2012’sPrometheusthat will help bridge the gap between the prequel and the originalAlien. FilmmakerNeill Blomkampis also putting together a project tentatively known asAlien 5, but we don’t know when that will move forward quite yet. While celebrating the 30th Anniversary ofAliensatComic-Conthis weekend, directorJames Cameronrevealed theAlienfranchise’s biggest mistake.
Screen Rantattended theAliens30th Anniversary panel at SDCC, which includedJames Cameron, producerGale Ann Hurdand starsSigourney Weaver(Ripley),Bill Paxton(Hudson),Lance Henriksen(Bishop),Paul Reiser(Burke), Michael Biehn (Hicks) and Carrie Henn (Newt). While the sequel is still beloved by fans around the world, the follow-up, 1992’sAlien 3, which marked the directorial debut of an up and coming filmmaker namedDavid Fincher, still represents a sore spot in the franchise for many fans.James Cameronrevealed that he thinks the filmmaker and the studio made the franchise’s biggest mistake by killing off Newt and Hicks.
“I thought it was dumb [that Hicks and Newt were killed off]. I thought it was a huge slap in the face to the fans. I mean look, [David] Fincher’s a friend of mine, and David is an amazing, amazing filmmaker, unquestionably. That was kind of his first big gig, and he was getting vectored around by the studio, and he dropped into the production late and they had a horrible script and they were rewriting it on the fly, and it was just a mess. I think it was a big mistake. So I certainly - had [producer Gale Anne Hurd and I] been involved, we would not have done that because we felt we earned something with the audience with those characters.”
AfterAliens, the franchise segued intoAlien Resurrectionin 1997, before shifting to an adaptation of the popular video gameAlien vs. Predator, and its sequelAliens vs. Predator - Requiem. There have been reports that bothNewtand Hicks will return inAlien 5, which has been rumored to be a direct sequel ofAliens, that disregards the events ofAlien 3andAlien: Resurrection, but we don’t know for sure.Sigourney Weaverdid have this to say aboutNeill Blomkamp’s script during the Comic-Con panel though.
“There is an incredible script byNeill. I didn’t want to do a fifth one. I thought going to earth wouldn’t be fun. I got this script that was amazing and gives fans everything they’re looking for and innovates in ways that became part of the world for me. He has things to do and I have things to do. And I hope that we’ll circle back around to do it once those things are done.”
While we don’t know when production may begin onAlien 5, or when the full title may be revealed,Sigourney Weaverteased earlier this month that this movie will give her iconic Ripley character a proper ending. 20th Century Fox hasn’t issued a release date forAlien 5so stay tuned for more updates on the project. We’ll have to wait and see ifAlien 5can eventually corrent the mistakes made inAlien 3, which may be the case if these rumors are true.
