Sigourney Weaver Shares Alien 5 Details & Ripley's Potential Return

Sigourney Weaver reveals new story details about Alien 5 and an update on Ripley’s return. In 2015, Weaver expressed interest in returning to the role of Ripley in Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5, which was canceled in favor of Ridley Scott’s prequels. In 2020, a separate script was revealed for Alien V, which was focused on Ripley and written by Walter Hill and David Giler, producers of the original movie.

On November 7, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris hosted a screening of the original Alien and afterward, Sigourney Weaver gave a 60-minute masterclass titled “A Lesson in Cinema,” where she reflected on her experience working on the movie.

During the Q&A portion, an audience member asked about Neill Blomkamp’s canceled Alien 5, which would have disregarded Alien 3 and brought back Ripley and Newt.

Weaver expressed her admiration for Blomkamp and praised the quality of the unrealized sequel, saying she “loved working with Neill and he had this idea of bringing Ripley and Newt back. It was a wonderful script.” She went on to explain that the project was ultimately shelved due to Ridley Scott’s focus on developing his own prequel series:

Yes. Well, I think like many of us, I was a big admirer of Neill. His movie was so striking and I worked with him on a movie called [Chappie]. And I loved working with Neil and he had this idea of bringing Ripley and Newt back. It was a wonderful script and unfortunately, it was at that point I think that Ridley Scott decided to be very possessive about the series and really drilled down on his prequels. And so I think it was a disaster for that project. We were never able to… I think Neil in fact just gave up and he’s so talented. I wish him all the best.

Weaver then turned her attention to another project, a 50-page treatment titled Alien V. Having first mentioned the treatment in 2020 and describing it as “quite extraordinary” just last month, Weaver shared new insights into the story’s distinctive direction. Although she reiterated that she has “never particularly wanted to go back to the series,” she admitted that Hill’s concept piqued her interest:

Actually, Walter Hill has written about 50 pages. Maybe, by now, he’s written more about where Ripley might be now. And although I’ve never particularly wanted to go back to the series, there’s something about her experience being sidelined now, probably by this society, by this company, by this world and being probably around 200 years old, but still Ripley and you know, presumably these problems still out there. So I’m going to see what happens with Walter’s script. It would not be like what we’ve seen tonight. It would not be running around through airshafts. It would be a very different kind of story.

Weaver also voiced strong approval for Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth series, expressing genuine excitement for the franchise’s future:

On the other hand, I loved Alien: Earth. I thought it was remarkable. So interesting, terrifying about our world and yet you could understand… you can imagine a world where each tech bro owns a planet. You know, it’s not that far from where America is now. So, I’m glad to see that Alien has legs, as they say, in the business. And I think it’s a very interesting time for the series.

Watch the full video of the masterclass below, via Mulderville on YouTube, with the conversation about Alien 5 and Alien V starting at approximately 01:08:52:

Still, Sigourney Weaver hasn’t ruled out the possibility of returning to the Alien franchise. In October 2025 at New York Comic Con, she revealed that she has had discussions about reprising her role as Ripley in an upcoming project, with a script being written by Walter Hill:

Walter Hill is a very good friend of mine, and he wrote 50 pages where Ripley would be now, and they are quite extraordinary. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney, or whoever it is now. I said I have never felt the need. 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’s a problem to them, so she’s sort of tucked away. 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.