Sigourney Weaver Teases Alien Comeback After Reading a 50-Page Script

Ripley might not be done after all. Sigourney Weaver just told a packed New York Comic Con crowd that conversations are happening about bringing Ellen Ripley back, and yeah, there is already paper on it.

So what actually happened?

• Weaver said she has met with the studio about Ripley’s return — and yes, she joked about the corporate shuffle: 20th Century Studios is now under Disney. As she put it:

"I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney, or whoever it is now."

Speaking at NYCC (via The Hollywood Reporter), Weaver explained that longtime Alien producer Walter Hill wrote the first 50 pages of a new Ripley story. She called those pages 'extraordinary' and very much in tune with where Ripley could be now. The angle Hill is exploring is surprisingly blunt: a world that punishes someone who tried to save it. Ripley is seen as a problem, so the powers that be quietly lock her away.

Weaver compared the vibe to a last-ride kind of story — think grayer, meaner, more reflective — and said she is considering working with Hill to figure out the rest of it. Important caveat: nothing is greenlit. As she put it, she does not know if it will actually happen.

Why this is notable

This is a real pivot from Weaver’s more cautious stance in recent years. She has frequently said Ripley had earned her rest after everything up to and including LV-426, and wondered out loud if the world even needed another Ripley movie. Now she sounds intrigued — not because of nostalgia, but because the new take feels true to the character and uncomfortably relevant: the system treating a hero like a liability.

The Alien landscape right now

If there were ever a moment to seriously talk about Ripley, this might be it. Alien: Romulus pulled in a healthy $350.9 million worldwide off a $90 million budget, which is exactly the kind of math studios listen to. On TV, FX’s Alien: Earth has been getting strong buzz — GamesRadar+ even called it the franchise’s best outing since James Cameron’s Aliens. There is heat on the brand again, and Ripley remains its clearest North Star.

What this Ripley story sounds like

From Weaver’s description, Hill’s draft aims for a late-life chapter: Ripley versus bureaucracy, reputation, and the kind of society that buries truth tellers in the name of order. She is sidelined, underestimated, and boxed up — which, of course, is when Ripley is most dangerous to anyone underestimating her.

Bottom line: there is no movie yet, but there is a serious 50-page start from the franchise’s original producer that Weaver likes enough to keep the conversation going. If this happens, it will not be a victory lap. It sounds more like a final, hard-edged reckoning for the Nostromo’s last survivor — and that could be the right way to do it.