How many versions of Alien 3 are you aware of? In 1992, Alien 3 hit theaters with Sigourney Weaver back again for a third time as Ellen Ripley in a film directed by then-newcomer David Fincher from a screenplay by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson (from a story by Vincent Ward). If it already sounds like a "too many cooks" situation... you don't know the half of it. After the massive success that was James Cameron's Aliens, the studio was thrilled to begin production on a third Alien feature, and out of all the potential proposals, the final product was lackluster. But there was one other potential Alien 3 that would've better honored the ending to Aliens while further expanding the mythology and world of the Ridley Scott-created franchise. William Gibson's take on Alien 3 mightn't have been perfect, but it would arguably have been better than what we got.
Writers Dan O'Bannon , Ronald Shusett , Vincent Ward , David Giler , Walter Hill , Larry Ferguson
Studio 20th Century Fox
Tagline The bitch is back.
Breaking Story for 'Alien 3' Proved a Nightmare
When it came to getting Alien 3 off the ground, there were plenty of different opinions on how the story should continue. In a 1997 issue of Cinemascape, the full story was finally told as writer Douglas Perry detailed the three years of pre-production that led to the eventual 1992 film. Of course, the studio (and the fans) wanted more xenomorph action following Aliens. So, 20th Century Fox and Brandywine Productions compared notes. At first, they hired cyberpunk author William Gibson, known best at the time for his novel Neuromancer, to come up with a story that highlighted an underlying Cold War analogy, something Sigourney Weaver was interested in exploring. Though she liked this concept, Weaver hoped to come back in a strictly limited capacity after her most emotional scenes from Aliens had been cut. Sadly, Gibson's script wasn't particularly liked by screenwriters David Giler and Walter Hill, who had written a treatment for the project, and they passed on the sci-fi author in favor of another round of reworking.
After Gibson left Alien 3 (then called Alien III), Near Darkscreenwriter Eric Red was hired, followed by his replacement David Twohy, and then later Vincent Ward, who would ultimately receive a "Story by" credit for his work on the film. When director Renny Harlin was briefly attached to the project, he wanted the xenomorphs to invade Earth, but subsequent scripts cut out that idea. While Alien 3 ultimately pulled from all of these possible scripts — including using the bar code tattoo idea from Gibson's — the final product went in a very different direction, dropping the Cold War analogy entirely and instead highlighting Ellen Ripley's final hour. Interestingly, Sigourney Weaver had hoped that the opposite would've been true, as she told Cinemascape that she felt as if "Ripley was going to become a burden to the story." In the end, she may have been right.
William Gibson's 'Alien III' Would've Better Honored the End of 'Aliens'
Image via 20th Century Studios
But what happened in William Gibson's version of Alien III? How would he have made the third installment differently had he been given the chance? Well, for starters, he wouldn't have started the picture by killing off the surviving cast from the last film. Alien 3 is infamous for killing off Michael Biehn's Corporal Dwayne Hicks and Carrie Henn's Newt in the opening act (and off-screen, we might add), thus invalidating the more hopeful ending of Aliens. Well, Gibson's Alien III wouldn't have done that. Instead, the Sulaco would have found its way into the Soviet stand-in, the Union of Progressive Peoples's, airspace, where UPP operatives would have inadvertently discovered a xenomorph egg within Bishop (Lance Henriksen), kicking off the horrors all over again. But when the Sulaco was returned to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Ripley, Hicks, and Newt would all make it out alive.
The filmmaker prefers to do things this way for the sake of the storyline and the actors.
In conjunction with Weaver's desire for a smaller role, Ripley would've only really been in the first act, defending Newt from the corporation's armed forces when the Sulaco reached the Anchorpoint space station. Afterward, she would have fallen into a coma for the rest of the picture before being sent away for safety. It would've been up to newcomers like Tully and Spence — paired with returning Aliens leads Hicks and Bishop — to save the Anchorpoint and work together with the UPP to eradicate the evolving xenomorphs (which can now spread like a virus, with those within proximity being infected and later becoming alien hybrids). Meanwhile, Newt is likewise written off and sent to live with her grandparents in Oregon, with Hicks ensuring that Ripley has a way to come find her when all this is over. Though it takes some time for Hicks to really get involved in the plot, once he does, it feels like the best parts of the action-packed Aliens again mixed with the pure space horror of the original Alien.
The first draft of the script (sans a few missing pages) is available readily online and has circulated among fans of the franchise for years. While Alien III is still obviously a first go around, there are plenty of fascinating concepts here that build off the same model James Cameron used in Aliens. For instance, the expansive Cold War conflict between corporations and the UPP is a thrilling concept that takes our heroes into new environments. Bishop's ending monologue is especially powerful, as he reminds Hicks that human beings aren't the enemy. Instead, he proposes that both factions ought to unite against their common foe: the xenomorph. Gibson's script even plants the seeds for Ridley Scott's Alien prequels when the android suggests that Hicks ought to take the battle to those who first created the aliens, noting that they're the true enemy who needs to be eradicated so that humanity can survive. The nuclear subtext is clear.
Ripley Had Less to Do in Gibson's 'Alien III,' but Hicks and Bishop Made up for It
Image via 20th Century Fox
One of the many criticisms of Gibson's plans for Alien III is that Ellen Ripley was essentially written out of the franchise. This was seemingly at the request of Weaver herself at the time, but it's still hard to think about Alien without its main star. "I'd like to point out that I worked from a treatment [provided] by the film's three producers, so it wasn't my idea, at all, to jettison Ripley," Gibson once explained (via CBR). "Unhappy with that, as a fan of the previous two films, I went for a multiple helping of Bishop, my second favorite human character in the first film." Since then, Ridley Scott has made two prequel installments without the Ripley character, and Alien: Romulus has likewise proved that good Alien stories don't have to be centered around the Ripleys in the same way that Star Wars doesn't always need a Skywalker. After all, Weaver herself once told Cinemascape, "There are only so many aspects to that character you can do."
Sadly, the final product for Alien 3 proved that notion the hard way, retracing the same steps of grief from Aliens and the familiar horror tropes first established in the 1979 original. With his interpretation of Alien III, Gibson dared to take the franchise into a bold new era that it was not yet ready to embark on. Deciding to create new cast members, pairing them up with Hicks and Bishop, was a wise choice on Gibson's part. One of the reasons we love seeing new Alien movies, no matter how similar they all are, is because each individual human reaction is different. Besides that, having Hicks and Bishop working together again feels like every '80s kid's dream, as the duo are well aware of the risks and dangers surrounding these horrible creatures.
But as the xenomorphs evolve, our heroes are forced to as well. Though another pass or two on the script might've made Gibson's Alien III an even more engaging story, it has all the components necessary for an exceptional Alien movie, one that could have been a more triumphant finale than what we ultimately got. Sure, Alien 3 gives Ripley a sacrificial death, which was certainly a heroic way for the character to go out (until she was, frustratingly, resurrected hundreds of years later), but Gibson's version gives the character a happier ending as her allies deal with the continual horrors of interstellar exploration.
William Gibson's 'Alien III' Has Been Adapted In Various Mediums
Although William Gibson's Alien III ultimately went unproduced, recent years have been kinder to his take on the third installment. In 2019, in conjunction with Alien's 40th anniversary, Alien III was adapted into various mediums for our enjoyment. In 2018, Dark Horse Comics published a five-issue limited series titled Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay that adapted Gibson's script into a comic book format, penned by Johnnie Christmas, who also did the artwork. In 2019, Audible produced their own audio drama based on Gibson's screenplay titled Alien III: An Audible Original Drama, which famously reunited Aliens co-stars Michael Biehn and Lance Henricksen, who reprised their roles as Hicks and Bishop, respectively. Unsurprisingly, they both do an excellent job, almost like stepping back into an old pair of shoes. "It never left me," Henrickson told The Verge in 2019. "I found myself snapping right back into a kind of innocence about the story, and the needs, and all of those things."
Hearing both Henriksen and Biehn as these characters again in original material that extends from their previous work in Aliens is almost dreamlike. Who wouldn't want more of these characters? Fans have famously been frustrated with Alien 3's decision to kill off Hicks without a fight, so much so that the video game Aliens: Colonel Marines retconned his death. But Alien III does a terrific job of pushing Hicks to his limits and gives the actors some interesting material to work with. Alongside the audio drama, 2021 saw the official novelization of Gibson's screenplay (called Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson), adapted by Pat Cadigan and published by Titan Books. Unlike the comic book and audio drama, the novelization of Alien III is based on Gibson's first draft, while the others are based on his second (via Starburst Magazine). Either way, it's a nice alternative to Ripley's horrid demise.
Alien 3, the official version, is available for streaming on Hulu.
Image by Zanda Rice
Image via 20th Century Studios 
Image via 20th Century Fox 
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