The Alien franchise has vastly expanded since its first movie was released in 1979, exploring numerous different characters set in the Xenomorph’s universe. With seven Alien movies, and plenty more releasing soon, including the upcoming TV show Alien: Earth, the Alien franchise has explored many different characters, including the famous Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), with new characters being introduced with each installment. Alien’s characters each have their own distinct personality and motivations, whether that be the quest for identity, dealing with loss, or battling Xenomorphs, making them the driving point for the sci-fi franchise.
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As a result, characters in the Alien franchise often make more than one appearance in the movies. For example, the first four Alien movies all focused on Ripley and her journey across different planets and situations, with the surrounding cast changing per film. However, the more modern films have rebooted the franchise with a whole new cast list, in two prequel movies and an interquel. Therefore, to smooth the transitions between the reboots, a number of characters have returned in multiple movies throughout the Alien franchise, further expanding its cinematic universe.
6 Ash/Rook
Appears In Alien & Alien: Romulus
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Ash (played by Ian Holm) was an Android who was first introduced in Alien, serving as a science officer aboard the USCSS Nostromo. Ash’s synthetic status was hidden from the rest of Nostromo’s crew due to his secret mission; to ensure a Xenomorph was returned to Weyland-Yutani for study and use in their bioweapons division. However, Ash’s nature is revealed when Ripley becomes suspicious of his inability to provide helpful information, and an ensuing fight leads to his decapitation, revealing his synthetic insides. After detailing his twisted interest in the Xenomorph, Ash was deactivated by Ripley and incinerated by Parker.
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However, this original character seemingly made a return in Alien: Romulus and divided fans. When Rain Carradine and her friends infiltrate the Renaissance to retrieve the cryostasis chambers for the journey to Yvaga III, they encounter a damaged Android known as Rook. Due to Rook being the same synthetic series as Ash, the characters both bear a likeness to the late Ian Holm, although Rook is voiced by Daniel Betts. Therefore, while Ash does not technically appear in both Alien and Alien: Romulus, his likeness and personality does as Rook also wants to bring the Xenomorph back to the company.
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5 Bishop
Appears In Aliens & Alien 3
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Every Alien movie has an Android, and for Aliens and Aliens 3, this Android was Bishop. As part of the combat unit sent to investigate the LV-426 Hadley’s Hope colony’s loss of contact, Bishop helped Ripley defeat the Xenomorphs in Aliens. Played by Lance Henriksen, Bishop had a good relationship with the USS Sulaco Marines, but Ripley remained wary of the open synthetic due to her experiences with Ash. However, during the mission on LV-426, Ripley began to trust Bishop as he did not share the same motivations, and he actually helped Ripley, Newt, and Corporal Hicks to survive.
Ripley reactivated Bishop after finding him in the scrapheap, to gain information from the black box recorder, but his sad state caused the Android to request his own deactivation.
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Bishop’s assistance didn’t come without sacrifice, as he was violently torn in two by the Xenomorph Queen at the end of Aliens. This meant that when the hypersleep bay crashed on Fury 161 in Alien 3, Bishop was further damaged, and the prison colony deemed him irreparable. Ripley reactivated Bishop after finding him in the scrapheap, to gain information from the black box recorder, but his sad state caused the Android to request his own deactivation. His remains were later retrieved by Weyland-Yutani, who arrived to capture Ripley and the Xenomorph, headed by Bishop’s designer and likeness, Michael Bishop.
4 David
Appears In Prometheus & Alien: Covenant
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Michael Fassbender’s David was an original Android built by Sir Peter Weyland and served as the template for the David 8 and Walter models. David was first introduced in Prometheus and was shown to have unique creative and emotional traits unseen in other Androids. Assigned to the USCSS Prometheus on its mission to LV-223 in its investigation of humanity’s origins and the Engineers, David played a major role in the movie. His secret Weyland-ordered experiment with Holloway and fascination with Elizabeth Shaw made him a creepy yet intriguing character, exemplified by his return in Alien: Covenant.
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Following LV-223’s disaster, Shaw and David traveled to the Engineer’s home world, driven by their desire to find answers. However, much like humans, David found the mortal Engineers inferior to Androids and eradicated them. David’s cruel nature also turned on Shaw as he performed gruesome experiments on her in his Xenomorph studies. When the USCSS Covenant crew arrived, David manipulated and killed them, swapping places with the identical Walter, and escaping with Daniels. After storing facehugger embryos and revealing his identity to Daniels, many are still wondering what happened to David after Alien: Covenant, as his story hasn’t concluded yet.
3 Newt
Aliens & Alien 3
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As the sole survivor of the Hadley’s Hope Xenomorph infestation, Rebecca Jorden (primarily referred to as “Newt”), had a sad story. When Ripley and the Marines were dispatched to LV-426, they found Newt hiding in the colony’s vents via their motion tracker. Newt had impressive survival skills as she was able to stay alive long enough to be rescued, despite the Xenomorphs constantly patrolling the colony and her young age. Ripley took the young girl on as a surrogate daughter and rescued her from the Xenomorphs when she got taken, most likely due to Ripley missing her own daughter.
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Newt’s death in
Aliens 3
was arguably one of the saddest moments in the franchise.
Having defeated the Xenomorphs, Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop went into hypersleep. While in hypersleep, Newt’s chamber was melted by acidic blood from a Facehugger, causing an electrical fire, and the cryosleep chambers crash-landed in an ocean on Fury 161. Unfortunately, due to the hole in her chamber left by the Facehugger’s blood, Newt drowned. Ripley then recovered Newt’s body and had Clemens perform an autopsy to check for a Chestburster. Newt’s death in Aliens 3 was arguably one of the saddest moments in the franchise, especially after she had survived the Hadley’s Hope infestation in Aliens.
2 Peter Weyland
Prometheus & Alien: Covenant
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Despite Peter Weyland’s name being mentioned throughout the Alien franchise, due to his legacy living on in the company, his actual screen time is relatively small. Much like David, Weyland appears in both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Weyland was a billionaire entrepreneur who founded Weyland Corp, which would later merge and become Weyland-Yutani, and the creator of David. In Prometheus, Weyland (played by Guy Pierce) funded Elizabeth Shaw’s mission to find their creators, the Engineers, in the hopes that they would expand his lifespan, and Weyland even stowed away aboard the USCSS Prometheus in hypersleep to accomplish this secret goal.
“There’s… nothing…”
“I know. Have a good journey, Mr Weyland.”
– Weyland’s last words with David
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When the crew reached LV-223 and awoke the last Engineer, Weyland spoke with the alien in the hopes of expanding his lifespan. Unfortunately, the Engineer attacked the group, decapitating David, who was providing translation, and hitting Weyland. Weyland died from his injuries in Prometheus at the age of 101 as David’s dismembered head said goodbye to his “father.“ However, Weyland makes a reappearance in Alien: Covenant in the form of a flashback.
While Weyland interviews the Android, David questions his creator and asks why he must serve humanity if Androids will outlive them
Following David’s activation in the opening scene of Alien: Covenant, a slightly younger Weyland talks with David in a sparse, white room. While Weyland interviews the Android, David questions his creator and asks why he must serve humanity if Androids will outlive them. Weyland doesn’t answer this question, brushing it off. This interaction foreshadows what is to come in Alien: Covenant, as David’s unique free-thinking design and Weyland’s inability to answer the question ultimately leads to the Android’s experiments with the “perfect” Xenomorph.
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1 Ripley
Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 & Alien Resurrection
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Ellen Ripley was the face of the Alien franchise for a long time because Sigourney Weaver’s character appeared in four Alien movies in total. First introduced in 1979, Ripley was one of the original members of the Nostromo crew, and her survival of the Xenomorph from LV-426 made her the first final girl in the Alien franchise. This trend would continue throughout the next three films up until Alien Resurrection, which featured a half-Xenomorph clone of Ripley called Ripley 8, and her story finally ended as the original Ripley had sacrificed herself in Alien 3.
Jonesy, the Nostromo’s cat, has also appeared in multiple movies –
Alien
on the Nostromo
and
Aliens
at Weyland-Yutani
– although it is unclear what happened to him after Ripley left him with the company.
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Due to her numerous encounters with the Xenomorph, Ripley was widely regarded as a bit of an expert on the alien creature, which was why the company sent her back in Aliens. Her natural quick thinking saved a lot of lives, including her own, and she made it her mission to ensure that Weyland-Yutani would not get their hands on a Xenomorph, having experienced how dangerous the creature is to humanity. Her connection to the Xenomorph made her such a desirable asset that Alien Resurrection saw Ripley birth the Xenomorph Queen and the company experimenting with multiple Ripley clones.
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Ripley’s legacy is mostly down to her continuous appearance in the Alien franchise, and she remains the only character to date to have appeared in four consecutive films. After her linear story came to an end in Alien Resurrection, the franchise has produced an unfinished prequel series following David, as well as an interquel in 2024. Despite Sigourney Weaver no longer appearing in the franchise, Ripley’s character lives on through Alien’s female lead tradition and references. For example, in the most recent movie, Alien: Romulus, the ship that Rain boards was experimenting with DNA from the Nostromo’s wreckage from Alien.
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The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.
Movie(s) Alien , Aliens (1986) , Alien 3 (1992) , Alien: Resurrection (1997) , Prometheus (2012) , Alien: Covenant (2017) , Alien: Romulus (2024) Created by Ridley Scott Latest Film Alien: Romulus Upcoming TV Shows Alien: Earth First Film Alien Cast Sigourney Weaver , Tom Skerritt , Veronica Cartwright , Harry Dean Stanton , John Hurt , Ian Holm , Yaphet Kotto , Michael Biehn , Paul Reiser , Lance Henriksen , Carrie Henn , Bill Paxton , Charles S. Dutton , Charles Dance , Pete Postlethwaite , Winona Ryder , Ron Perlman , Dan Hedaya , Noomi Rapace , Charlize Theron , Idris Elba , Guy Pearce , Michael Fassbender , Katherine Waterston , Billy Crudup , Danny McBride , Demián Bichir Expand