Has Alien Outgrown Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley?

So Sigourney Weaver just told folks at New York Comic Con that she has been talking to Disney about more Alien. On top of that, Walter Hill apparently banged out 50 pages on where Ripley could go next. Cue the wave of breathless headlines and YouTube thumbnails. The question underneath all that: do we actually need Ripley back?

The spark

Quick refresher: Disney owns the Alien franchise now via 20th Century, and Weaver says she has had conversations with them. Hill, who has long history with the series, has written a 50-page what-if for Ripley. That is the kind of oddly specific tidbit that makes the internet go full detective board.

I love Ripley... and I think she should rest

Ripley is an all-timer. Weaver is a legend. But she has already been dragged through three films worth of Xenomorph trauma (four, if you count the clones in Resurrection). She loses everyone she cares about, over and over, and barely gets a moment to breathe before another acid-blood nightmare shows up. Do we really need to put her through that again?

The continuity knot no one really wants to untangle

Story-wise, it gets messy fast. The real Ripley died at the end of Alien 3. Resurrection gave us clones. Bringing her back now means picking a lane that will annoy somebody.

• Continue from Resurrection with the clone concept. That is a tough sell emotionally and tonally.
• Pull a Halloween 2018: ignore 3 and 4 and make a direct follow-up to Aliens. That was basically Neill Blomkamp's plan before his Alien project fizzled.

Both routes scream nostalgia bait more than a story we need.

Meanwhile, the franchise is doing fine without her

Alien Romulus already proved you can build a new lead who channels Ripley-like grit without wheeling out the legacy character. It works because it feels fresh, not like a reunion special. And there is even the very successful Alien: Earth, which is getting along just fine without Ripley at the center. Jumping back to her now feels like slamming the brakes on momentum the series just rebuilt.

The age and timing reality check

Weaver is 76. Yes, she convincingly played a teenager in the Avatar sequels, but Ripley is a different kind of physical, bruising role. Also, this hypothetical is not rolling cameras tomorrow. I totally get the pull of returning to an icon, but at some point you let the character have a peaceful ending instead of inventing new ways to throw her back into Weyland-Yutani nonsense and Xenomorph trauma. Please do not give us a twist where she has been locked in a black site for decades.

So... should it happen?

My vote: no. If Disney and 20th want more Alien, keep backing new faces, new corners of the universe, and the tone that made Romulus click. If someone wants to write the Ripley bible, cool, but I am not convinced Walter Hill is the person to shepherd it right now.

Where are you on this? Bring Ripley back for one last fight, or keep pushing the franchise forward with fresh blood?