Is Amanda Ripley the future?

Good points. The series could actually begin again with a clean slate for a new generation. Old timey purists might balk at the whipper snapper but so what?

Notice how long Star Trek has survived through different casts- the core of what made it Star Trek always remained. That's what Alien needs to do.

I am not 100% sure...

I think certainly as far as offering us a Cinematic Game Franchise.  But expanding this to a Movie?  I am not sure... a 5-6 Part TV Series would be interesting to explore.

I dont feel the Alien Franchise is as big as Star Trek or Star Wars by virtue of the limited Scope of the Alien Franchise as far as Humans, Xenomorphs and Space Travel within like 500 Light Years.

But Prometheus had potentially opened up a Expanded Universe that could rival Star Wars  and Star Trek, maybe not to the same level but the Engineers Plot expands the Franchise to the Far Reaches of the Galaxy with the potential of Many Many Worlds, Many Many Races and Many Many Horrors.

It seems this was at least Ridley Scotts ambition.

It does work for an expanded universe for sure.It's not really the future on film,but it helps build a more consistent and constant universe off screen.

Off screen (meaning a series) would be fine and actually all the better. Bring it!

Looks like we might be onto something here!

https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/alien-blackout-interview-1203103736/

FoxNext on Variety:

“Alien: Blackout,” the mobile survival horror game revealed earlier this week, is part of a broader 20th Century Fox initiative to tell new stories in the franchise around Amanda Ripley. The initiative, branded around the “ReadWatchPlay” slogan, won’t include any other games, nor is it tied to a new feature film, 20th Century Fox’s FoxNext tells Variety.

“ReadWatchPlay is referring to individual entries for each one,” said TQ Jefferson, vice president of external development at FoxNext. “It’s exploring different elements of Amanda Ripley’s saga.

 “The slogan is the rallying cry for the activity that is going to touch upon Amanda Ripley’s story in the immediate future.”

Those whom know The Giver will understand when I say I am feeling The Stirrings/Wantings.

As much as a let-down as the prequels are I am glad that they are not connected to Ripley. Maybe they think that the movies did bad because of that but I think that it is one of their strengths. The universe is big so why must every movie, comic, and so on be about someone connected to her (not all but many of them)? Give me new and well done characters and avoid to throw her into everything, maybe someone tied to Vasques would work (don’t ask me how because I don’t know).

“Several new hero/heroines have failed to hit the mark like Shaw, Daniels, Tennessee, Lex (AVP) to name a few.”

That is not because they were not like her, that is because they were poorly written and/or executed. Like they had writers that didn’t know how to make human characters or that were told to focus on other things, what ever the case may be.

Star Wars has more characters than the Skywalkers and the Alien franchise has more than Ripley. Give me well done characters and a lot of it is fixed.

Don’t cook the characters by sort of recycling, time to look beyond Ripley and related.

Thoughts_Dreams excellent points! There is most definitely more to this franchise than just Ripley(s) battling the xeno's and The Company.

I have a theory about why we don't like most of the Prometheus and Covenant cast, but DO like the Alien characters (that were also quite one-dimensional)...and it's not nostalgia or 'rose-tinted glasses'. I'll make a thread about it when I get a chance.

I just feel the franchise as a whole lacks direction and unity.

Prometheus attempted to open up new directions and new possibilities, whilst introducing us to a protagonist in Shaw; a character that contrasted well against Ellen Ripley. They are almost polar opposites in personality except for their indomitable resilience and strength.

IMO the biggest mistake they made with Covenant was replacing Shaw with a less vocal/emotional Daniels, and then fore-shadowed her potential demise at start of 'Awakening' as well. Does that mean we will get a third lead character in as many films? 

Prometheus was Shaw's crucible, she went through hell in that film. Her entire world was turned upside down and perverted by David. 

Daniel's transformation was not as convincing I felt.

Rallying behind Amanda Ripley gives us and the franchise the unity and consistency it needs in the interim. Until they establish some structure and direction to where the Alienverse is heading and who is leading it.

Amanda's character has an expendable timeline in that her fate has already established....unless of course Burke was lying to Ellen Ripley, which is entirely possible.  

The good thing about Amanda is that we can identify with her (especially if you played Isolation- because you WERE her) and had some skin in the game. A series would really have to stick with the character Creative Assembly developed.

As far as Burke is concerned, Amanda was in her late 60s when she died? Burke could have been telling the truth since Amanda would have a lot of decades to live post Isolation.

Amanda apparently married, adopted a different last name, had no offspring and died of cancer. Hmmm.............No offspring and died of "cancer"- yes, there could be a few interesting ways to flesh that out.

"Don’t cook the characters by sort of recycling, time to look beyond Ripley and related"

Totally agree.....

I think regarding Amanda Ripley and ALIENS... the revelations about Alien Isolation could now indeed get us to ponder, did Amanda have a normal happy LIFE?

Or could her Death/Disappearance be Shrouded in Conspiracy?

I would not put it past Disney to make a Game, Comic or what ever that reveal Amanda is alive and reunites with Ripley at some point...  But she looked in her 60's in ALIENS... that Photo could be Fake!    But she would be that old because Ripley was in Cryo-sleep for 57 years... but so could Amanda..... 

I hope i have not just given them a IDEA LOL

Amanda needs her own journey. I think besides some obvious and occasional nods, Ellen should have no involvement.

Absolutely.....

Sadly, as much as I've loved Sigourney and the Ellen Ripley character, I agree - her story was told. 4 films is enough. As for if Amanda is the next step, I too side with those who liked the Ripley-less expansion of the franchise.

Ripley was the anchor and the beast itself was an accessory to her struggles. But Prometheus showed us a vast new potential for expansion and I feel basing the next move on another Ripley character will be a hindrance.

Alien is not Star Wars. But it seems like Ripley is the Skywalker of this franchise and studio execs are trying to replicate that kind of adoration and affiliation. The issue is Alien is a much deeper film, imo. And it poses much deeper philosophies. To base the future exploration of this unexplored franchise on one character or one family name would be a mistake.

I Raptus By now Ripley herself is a big stereotype. Ok, Amanda is like her mother, great. If would have to choose one way to continue, is to be strong in the many other ways. They could discovery ancient civilizations or surmount various inner struggles (Sure space Idiana jones, why not). But please no more hiding in shadows or gunning aliens or ejecting them into space.

Is Amanda Ripley the future? I think so. (source)

There are quite a bit of newly-revealed concepts in Amanda's story, below.

 "Those grey figures are actually next-generation combat synthetics (androids) that incorporate technology derived from the Xenomorphs. Their features include: hardened skin, acid-tipped munitions, the ability to survive vacuum, fire, and other extremes. The company essentially uses them as security in their facilities, herders of their kidnapped victims, as well as handlers for the Xenomorphs."

Seems to me again they cant figure out something too Original... well it kind of is interesting but offers some MAJOR conflicts with the Franchise!

But its interesting NONE the LESS..  but we must ASK... how does the Company Have the Xenomorph, but then LOSSES it and everything they have worked on.

The only Conclusion is the Company Sets-Up a Outpost for such things, and contains their Experiments and Technology in this place.... and that this place ends up being DESTROYED... maybe at the Hands of Amanda...

Thus leaving only the Derelict as the only means on LV-426.

Those Combat Synthetics do have a bit of the LV-223 Engineer look to them...  which is in part Cool, but then maybe not too Original.... as i suspect the way these are created is NOT far off how our LV-223 Engineers came to be.

That is ENGINEERED/EVOLVED by use of the Black Goo to incorporate Traits of a Organisms Distantly related to the Xenomorph...

The LV-223 Engineer is the first thing I thought of too when I read that above regarding the Combat Synthetics BigDave. 

A few people have reportedly already completed Alien: Blackout. They all say Blackout is very much a sequel to Isolation with a lot of narrative regarding the events during and after the Sevastopol incident   

I posted a partial playthrough on the first impressions thread. Looks pretty good and begs for a larger scale Isolation sequel! Blackout added some more story too.

I Raptus 8:

Thank you for your response

I am looking forward to reading about why we like the old characters but not the new. To me it is simply because the old ones were better written and /or executed. Yes they were not perfect but they were performed better.

Hmm, I think that they should sit down and think about what they are trying to tell with the story. Maybe have a book of guidelines (not dogmas) that they can follow when they do the movies, like a things to think about kind of list. I am not sure if they were kind of structured in how they were approaching this one. You got to have a plan when you are trying to make things like this.

The problem with Shaw isn’t that she was not like Ripley, her problem is that she was irrational and annoying. About replacing Shaw with Daniels, I don’t think that replacing her was a problem in itself. The problem is that Daniels wasn’t well done either but she was not the only one with that problem to be fair. Once again there is a director that cares more about the themes than the characters. You have the same director for two movies in the same universe and two movies in a row have the same problems so something must be going on there. When I say well done I mean that I did not get how she was as a character. I mean I understood how Ripley was, Clemens, 85, David, Walter, Ash, Dillon, Hicks, Vasques. I did not understand that much about how the characters were as persons in Alien Covenant. If you look at Tennesee, Daniels, Carine, Faris, for example then you try to explain how they were as characters I bet that you would get a difficult time trying to do that, I know that I would. My point is that they almost didn’t have any personality. Do you agree or at least understand my point?

“Does that mean we will get a third lead character in as many films?”

If we get a third one that is, it seems very uncertain right now. I am not sure if I want another prequel, it depends on how they do it. They need to get better writers that makes me at least understand how the characters are as persons because that have not been the case since Alien 3. Don’t give me another movie filled with blank faces (although there are some fairly well-written characters in the prequels), I want characters that I can understand how they are.

You raise some good points Thoughts_Dreams..

I would say that ALIEN the Characters were not extremely well done, they gave us that Space Truckers so regular working folk kind of vibe, i think had Alien Covenant had the Crew minus the Mercs.... and so a bit more time was spent on the likes of Karine, Faris, Oram, Daniels, Tennessee etc then i think we could have connected with them as much as the ALIEN cast.

I think what worked with ALIEN was by the 3rd Act, Ripley had been built into a Character that worked... more than Daniels and Dr Shaw...  But the real EVOLUTION of Ripley was in ALIENS as we have her as the Survivor from the first movie and we really could then pick up from her story and evolve it...

Had we got the ENDING that Ridley Scott wanted with Ripley being killed, then we got a sequel that had NO Ripley then i am not sure we would remember her Characters Impact as much from just ALIEN.

So in part continuing a Franchise with a Survivor from the Previous Movie is usually a good thing to do, and you can then improve on any criticism of the Character from the previous movie.

So what i am saying is if say the next movie they kill off Daniels off screen or early on, or we never get a movie that continues her story....   IF they make a movie where they introduce us to NEW Characters, if they plan a sequel after this then they cant keep introducing Characters especially lead Characters to then KILL them off, or they play NO role in the sequel...

This does-not mean you have to make a 2-3 movie Trilogy about a Character, you can KILL the Character off provided they play some larger role in the movie and pass the Torch to another Character.

For example...

Alien Covenant 2... if Daniels does not appear, then if they introduce another Character, then they cant have a Main 1-2 Human Characters DIE-OFF they have to survive and play some role in any sequel...

You could have Daniels play a Smaller Role, say 30-40% of the Movie, then have another Character or TWO from a incoming Human Ship interact with Daniels and then have them be the Survivors, as long as they play again some larger role in the sequel AKA Alien Covenant 3 but you dont have to have them become some kind of NEW Ripley.

Regarding Amanda... if we are talking a Movie, then indeed 2 Movies with her could work... but if we got that plus countless Game and Comic/Novel Appearances it could make the Character Repetitive.

I am tired of waiting years for a 90 minute movie with plots and characters as complicated as this. They should move to streaming series to develop.