If we learned anything from Rogue One‘s use of CGI characters, it’s that the uncanny valley is still very much present. As phenomenal as the CGI was, there was still something just a little off about it. Despite the lukewarm reaction to this usage, Ridley Scott isn’t ruling out the possibility of having a digitally de-aged Sigourney Weaver return to her role as Ellen Ripley in a future Alien film. Read the quote from Empire below:
“Scott will, it seems, be holding back some of his gruesome notions for future installments: he is planning at least two more films before linking up with the original Alien. “Right now we’ve got a ten-page synopsis,” he reveals. “John Logan’s doing it. And we know where we’re going with it.” He is not ruling out the idea of using a digitally de-aged Sigourney Weaver to bring back Ripley: “You could do that,” he allows. And Logan promises “different mutations” of the Alien to come.
Digital de-aging is clever technology and can be used to interesting effect as seen in Captain America: Civil War with Robert Downey Jr. or Terminator: Salvation with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hopefully it will not quite reach the level of uncanniness that was aquatinted with Rogue One if Scott does go through with this idea. Scott apparently has another two movies lined up for the Alien franchise, and Ripley would not appear until the second one since it will lead into the original film, so there is a lot of time to hopefully perfect the technology further.
Alien: Covenant is set for release on May 19.
