9 Sci-Fi Movie Sequels That Insulted Great Characters

From director David Fincher, Alien 3 famously had a ludicrously troubled production that resulted in so many changes being made during the film's development.

To be fair, Alien 3 was always going to find it tough to live up to the high standards of Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, but Alien 3 didn't help itself by opting to bizarrely kill off three of the four most popular characters from its predecessor.

While Ellen Ripley would be alive and well in Alien 3, the same couldn't be said about Hicks, Newt, and Bishop. Having survived Aliens, all three had the ignominy of being killed off-screen during the opening moments of Fincher's 1992 movie.

This is all explained when an escape pod carrying the three and Ripley crash-lands on Fury 161 during the film's first few minutes, with only Sigourney Weaver's Ripley surviving this crash. And just like that, three great characters who fans had invested so much in during Aliens were disrespectfully removed from the franchise.

It's no wonder that so many fans have spent the subsequent years demanding to see Hicks, Newt, and Bishop brought back to life - with District 9 filmmaker Neill Blomkamp still holding out some slither of hope of helming a new Alien movie set directly after Aliens and featuring all three of these shunted characters.