As bizarre as it sounds, 2018’sThe Predatoralmost managed to undo the most hated death in the entireAlienfranchise. To most movie viewers, David Fincher is best known as the director of modern masterpieces likeSe7en,The Social Network, and Fight Club. However, for a select few viewers, the director will always be known as the man who killed off Newt and Hicks.Alien 3’s hated Newt and Hicks deathsoccur before the sequel’s story even begins, with the duo dying off-screen while Ripley’s spaceship crashes. This set upAlien 3as a far darker sequel.
Predator’s Best Movie Since The Arnold Schwarzenegger Film Accidentally Created A Big Problem For The Franchise
Although 2022’s Predator prequel Prey was a huge improvement on earlier Predator sequels, the very elements that made it work make it hard to follow.
However, many viewers were unimpressed with this drastic tonal shift after the triumphant ending ofAliens, andAlien 3never won back the crowd after this drastic opening salvo.Alien 3is still ranked low amongall theAlienmovies, and the consensus among critics and fans alike is that the sequel wasn’t thrilling or original enough to justify its uber-bleak, hopeless tone.Neil Blomkamp’s canceledAlien 5promised to retcon the widely reviled deaths, according to a post on the fan siteAlien Vs Predator Galaxy, but this was not the only time that this nearly happened.
The Predator’s Scrapped Alien Connection Would’ve Undone Newt’s Death
Newt’s Alien 3 Death Would Have Been Retconned In The Predator’s Ending
While it might seem strange, one ofThe Predator’s alternate endingspromised to bring back Newt as an adult and retcon her tragic death.The Predator’s third act was infamously messy, undergoing extensive res-hoots after test audiences didn’t like the original conclusion of Shane Black’s 2018 franchise reboot. One of the proposed endings forThe Predatorrevealed that Ellen Ripley and an adult Newt were the Predator Killers sent to kill the Predators taking over Earth, a twist that would have complicated the timeline of both franchises immeasurably. Notably, Sigourney Weaver wasn’t lined up to reprise the role of Ripley.
Undoing Newt’s death and making her into a time-travelling Predator Killer sounds fun, but the idea would have been almost impossible to justify.
Instead, Ripley’s cameo would have seen her masked throughout and her identity would have been revealed by a name tag. AlthoughThe Predator’s alternate endingwould have brought back a beloved supporting character fromAliens,it is a good thing thatThe Predatordidn’t retcon Newt’s death in its ending. The twist simply made no sense in logical terms and, as a result, felt like a case of the franchise’s creators cramming in references to theAlienmythos solely for the sake of impressing fans. After all, Reply and Newt were born decades afterThe Predator’s events ended.
Why It’s Good That The Predator’s Ripley & Newt Cameos Never Happened
The Predator Was The Wrong Time and Place To Retcon The Infamous Death
Undoing Newt’s death and making her into a time-travelling Predator Killer sounds fun, but the idea would have been almost impossible to justify in the established world of the series. For one thing, there is no canonical human time travel in theAlienfranchise, but Ripley and Newt would have needed to travel to a time years before they were born to appear inThe Predator’s ending. For another, neither Ripley nor Newt ever encountered a Predator before, so there is no reason that theAlienfranchise’s beloved heroines would be singled out as Predator Killers inThe Predator.
