9 Movie Franchise Staples That Actually Came From Sequels

6. Alien Queen - Aliens

Aliens Alien Queen
20th Century Fox

Ridley Scott is considered the architect of the entire Alien franchise, but while he did direct the seminal original and then return years later to flesh out the universe even more with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, James Cameron contributed just as many ideas to establish the iconic mythology

However, it was perhaps the Alien Queen which was his greatest addition to the universe, giving fans a bigger, badder xenomorph to haunt their dreams.

More than that though, the Queen also established the ecology of these creatures, clueing audiences into how they reproduce and spread. In the original, the facehugger eggs just are, whereas in Aliens you get to see first-hand how they're made, and how the xenomorphs work on a hierarchical system.

It's since become a staple of the franchise, but Ridley Scott's original movie almost made the idea impossible. The Queen is never brought up, and that's because a deleted scene explained that the eggs are actually made by any Alien which cocoons a human victim, not actually "birthed" in the conventional sense.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.