Alien Original Ending Included Ripley’s Death

The Alien franchise is getting another chapter this summer the release of Alien prequel / […]

September 5, 2017, 6:42pm

The Alien franchise is getting another chapter this summer the release of Alien prequel / Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant. As buzz builds around Ridley Scott’s return to a gruesome and terrifying sci-fi/horror formula, there’s also the inevitable talk about where the franchise has been, and where it could’ve gone.

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When it comes to the “What Ifs?” regarding the Alien franchise, most of the conversation has focused on on director Neil Blomkamp’s stalled Alien 5 project, which would’ve brought back Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley for a new sequel to Aliens. However, today we learn that had the original Alien played out the way it was initially supposed to, Weaver would’ve never been able to return for Alien 5 – or Aliens, for that matter.

Speaking to EW about Alien: Covenant‘s imminent release, Ridley Scott revealed that he had a much more violent end for Ripley in mind:

“I thought that the alien should come in, and Ripley harpoons it and it makes no difference, so it slams through her mask and rips her head off.”

He went on to say that the ending of the film would involve the Alien covering its tracks, by using the ship’s controls to send a message: “It would mimic Captain Dallas [Skerritt] saying, ‘I’m signing off.’”

That would’ve been a depressing and creepy ending, giving the Xenomorph a lot more intelligence, as it used subterfuge to presumably stow away aboard a vessel, bound for more populated destinations. The only problem was (according to Scott), none of the powers that be at the studio liked the idea: “The first executive from Fox arrived on set within 14 hours, threatening to fire me on the spot [laughs]. So we didn’t do that [ending].”

Director Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created, with ALIEN: COVENANT, a new chapter in his groundbreaking ALIEN franchise. The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.

The cast features Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, and Benjamin Rigby.

Alien: Covenant opens in theaters on May 19, 2017. Let us know how excited you are for this films by rating it in the Anticipation Rankings below!