Alien fans celebrated Alien Day on Wednesday and learned several things about the future of their beloved franchise. Alien Day takes place on April 26 in honor of LV-426, the moon where Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her team first discovered the Xenomorphs. While director Fede Alvarez celebrated Alien Day by announcing his next film in the franchise, Sigourney Weaver announced to fans that she would not be returning to play one of its most iconic characters.
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Weaver says goodbye to Ellen Ripley
When it was announced that Neill Blomkamp, the creator of Chappie and District 9, would be helming an Alien 5 project, Weaver was incredibly supportive of the project and expressed more than once his desire to return her role as Ellen Ripley.
Blomkamp's Alien 5 project was rumored to ignore the events of Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection and bring back several other characters. However, the project was abandoned and Weaver decided it was time to move on, which she explained in an interview with Total Film:
Although she is leaving the role, she wanted to praise those who created her character. “They made Ripley a woman, without making her a helpless creature. It was men who created this female character, but they loved and respected strong women.”
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Fede Alvarez celebrates Alien Day and reveals his next project
On Wednesday, the Don't Breathe and Evil Dead director tweeted an image of a Facehugger attached to a bulletin board with the words “Happy Alien Day” scrawled across it with the caption, “Happy #AlienDay everybody!” (Happy Alien Day, everyone!). It's well known that Alvarez is a huge fan of the Alien franchise, so let's hope he creates something as memorable as the previous films.
We know very little about this project, other than that it will have nothing to do with the previous films, and that it will focus on entirely new and younger characters, rather than older characters. seniors we've seen in corporate, military, and scientific roles.
Steve Asbell, president of 20th Century, revealed that Alvarez's project was chosen “solely because of the strength of Fede's project. It was just a really good story with a bunch of characters that we don't think never seen before.”
“It's not a film that has to be all things to all people with these gargantuan budgets. They can authentically be who they are. And it's closer to its genre roots.”
While it's sad to see Ripley's story come to an end after so many years, fans are curious to see where Fede Alvarez takes the franchise and if the characters he creates will have as much presence as Ellen Ridley.
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TL;DR
- Alien fans celebrated Alien Day on Wednesday.
- Fede Alvarez revealed his next project on Twitter.
- Sigourney Weaver has revealed she will not return to play her iconic character.