See Sigourney Weaver In The Cancelled Alien 5
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Alien, as a franchise and especially the original movies, continue to have almost a timeless feel to them which is really saying something considering they are about parasite-creating hell-spawn extraterrestrials invading spaceships and space stations. But ever since Alien came out in 1979, we’ve had this certain picture of Sigourney Weaver as Ripley fighting the good fight and saving humanity. Which is why it’s somewhat bittersweet and yet still beautiful to see the concept art for what would have been Alien 5, a movie in the series that never ended up being made.
The latest drop of the concept art for Alien 5 started making its way around the internet showing us Sigourney Weaver in a couple of different action shots and backgrounds that give a sense of Neill Blomkamp’s original ideas for Weaver as Ripley in this space (pun intended). They dropped from Dahal Land and include a number of different looks at characters, concepts, fight scenes, and some of the inner settings for the proposed film. Check some of them out:
In these, Sigourney Weaver is back as Ripley and still up to her neck in Xenomorph goo and terror. The more things change, the more they stay the same with this franchise, but that’s also okay considering some of the origins of this particular story. The plot in the original movies was always startlingly simple and yet in that, there was a certain amount of horror as well. Conceptualizing the idea that “In space, no one can hear you scream” and then bringing that to life was something Ridley Scott and James Cameron did in the first two movies. It looks like Blomkamp was going to follow suit.
The Alien 5 concept art has Sigourney Weaver fearing for her life in some kind of pool of slime surrounded by the remnants of the Xenomorph excretion. There’s also what appears to be Michael Biehn’s Hicks who looks worse for wear but still very much alive which would have been a bit of retconning from the previous film. We also get a group of Mercs with a dog in a holding pattern, looking like they are about to enter the fighting fray. And finally, there’s Ripley talking looking at an artificial life form named Jax.
And what would Alien 5 be without the actual alien? The Xenomorph looks as terrifying as ever and unkillable in all the ways we’ve learned from the previous movies. Sigourney Weaver isn’t pictured in any of the concept art with the actual thing, but as we’ve known from previous movies, things are always gearing up for an eventual showdown.
Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 never came to fruition though apparently, it was going to be titled Alien: Awakening. Sigourney Weaver was reportedly onboard to reprise the role but they scrapped it when Ridley Scott came on to do the third of the prequels after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Oh, what could have been if this concept art is any indication. Though it won’t include those two, there is another Alien movie currently in development and apparently, they are going to give the alien a new look and could be dialing up the threat as well.
