Summary

• Alien: Covenant's decision to start with a major character death echoed one of Alien 3's biggest mistakes.
• Reducing the franchise's threat to a lone Xenomorph in Alien 3 was a disappointment after Ripley's triumph in killing the Alien Queen.
• Killing off strong characters off-screen undermined viewer investment and diminished the impact of the story.

WhileAlien 3 was one of the most infamously troubled productions in Hollywood. Despite this, it's striking just how many errors made it into the finished film. While Alien and Aliens had their flaws, Alien 3 was full of bizarre storytelling choices and misguided plot elements that would never have worked, even if the movie’s creative team hadn't been repeatedly reshuffled during production. One example was reducing the franchise’s threat back down to a lone Xenomorph.

After Ripley killed the Alien Queen in Aliens, seeing her face off against a single Xenomorph would always have been a letdown. While Disney’s Alien reboot might be able to get away with this, as the movie’s made up of new characters, Ripley’s return made Alien 3’s antagonist inherently disappointing. Viewers had seen Ripley dispatch an entire hive of aliens, so one Xenomorph no longer seemed like as much of a threat. However, it was another creative choice that earned the ire of viewers and critics: Hicks and Newt dying off-screen was infuriating, as it made their entire Aliens arcs pointless.

Shaw Dying Repeats Alien 3's Newt And Hicks Deaths

Despite how much the off0screen deaths of Newt and Hicks angered viewers, 2017’s Alien: Covenant managed to repeat this exact same plot beat almost three decades later. By the time Alien: Covenant’s story started, Prometheus' heroine, Elizabeth Shaw, was already dead. She became collateral damage in the evil antics of David the android, whose Alien: Covenant plan might have been the most convoluted and unclear scheme in the entire series. Thus, in both Alien 3 and Alien: Covenant, the strongest characters from the previous installments didn't make it into the next movie — and they didn't even receive a meaningful farewell from the franchise.

Instead, they were killed off-screen and treated as afterthoughts by their respective movies. This was arguably even worse in Alien: Covenant's case, as Shaw was the heroine of Prometheus. Newt was adorable, and Hicks was a valuable ing character, but there was no denying that Ellen Ripley was the main character of Alien and Aliens. However, Shaw was Prometheus’ Ripley equivalent and its audience insertion persona, so discovering that she died offscreen felt like a slap in the face. Shaw could have died during Alien: Covenant and could even have been killed by David, but not like that.

Shaw's Off-Screen Death Was A Major Alien Covenant Mistake

Killing Shaw off-screen inadvertently confirmed for viewers that there was no reason to get invested in the Alien franchise’s new heroes. Thus, when Alien: Covenant’s ending arrived, and David double-crossed the heroes, few viewers were shocked by this downbeat revelation. If Shaw had survived and become this sequel’s heroine, seeing David use her body as an alien incubator in Alien: Covenant could have been disturbing and unexpected. Instead, when this fate befell Alien: Covenant's surviving heroes, any viewers familiar with Alien 3 were left disappointed but unfazed.