James Cameron's Alien 5 Saw Ripley Meet Arnold Schwarzenegger
James Cameron scored a major hit with 1986 sequel Aliens, and here's how his concept for Alien 5 might have paired Ripley with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The original plan for Alien: Resurrection was to follow up with a fifth entry set on Earth, but following the lukewarm business that greeted this 1997 outing, that idea was scrapped. For a brief period, it looked like original Alien helmer Ridley Scott would return to direct a fifth movie in the early 2000s from a script by none other than James Cameron - a match made in sci-fi movie heaven, basically.
Little has been revealed about Cameron's planned story for Alien 5, though given Scott's fascination with exploring the origins of both the title monsters and their creators the Engineers, it may have taken place on their homeworld. Cameron seemed quite excited about revisiting the franchise during this period too, but once he learned the studio was focusing on Alien vs Predator instead, both he and Scott exited the project. Scott would later get to explore the Engineers with his 2012 prequel Prometheus.
One thing that is known about the Scott/Cameron Alien 5 comes thanks to a quote the latter gave during an interview with the BBC in 2003 (via IGN). He stated he was looking to do something similar in tone to Aliens for the next outing, which would naturally feature the return of Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. He also said "I've even discussed the possibility of putting him [Arnold Schwarzenegger] into the Alien movie," suggesting the sequel would pair Arnie and Sigourney together against a new Xenomorph menace
A fifth Alien that paired two genuine icons of the sci-fi genre could have been one hell of a way to revive the then-ailing series. Given the timeline of the Alien franchise - and Cameron's seeming dislike of crossovers - it seems doubtful Schwarzenegger would have reprised his character from Predator, Dutch. Perhaps he would have been a space marine leading a mission against the Xenomorphs with Ripley's assistance, though this is pure speculation.
The studio soon became far more excited by the possibilities of Alien Vs Predator, a concept Cameron and also Weaver felt sounded kind of tacky. Oddly enough, Cameron later had positive things to say about AVP - which included ranking it above David Fincher's Alien 3 - but he appears to have zero regrets about his decision to walk away from Alien 5. It's very doubtful he could be tempted to revive his original concept at this point either, and it's hards not to lament the Sigourney Weaver/Arnold Schwarzenegger Alien movie that could have been.