Harrison Ford may have been eager to wield the whip and don his Indy hat again, playing one of his most favorite characters again, but not every actor is keen to play the same role she did more than 40 years ago.

It’s been 44 years since Sigourney Weaver first played Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien, but unlike Ford, she has no plans to return to the role that made her an action movie icon. In a new interview with Total Film magazine, Weaver said her days as Ripley are over.

“There are all kinds of younger actors taking this kind of role,” Weaver said. “And there was an ‘Alien’ [film] that I really wanted to do with Neill Blomkamp and we didn’t get to do that, but, you know, that ship has sailed. I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. I put in my time in space!”

District 9 filmmaker Blomkamp scripted and did the prep work for an Alien movie for 20th Century Fox that never happened. The sequel would have been Weaver’s fifth adventure as Ellen Ripley. She originated the role in Alien (1979), which was followed by Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997). Back in 2015 during the film’s development phase, Weaver was interviewed by Variety and told them Blomkamp’s movie would “break new ground.”

“I can’t think of a better director,” Weaver said at the time about Blomkamp, who directed her in Chappie. “He’s a real fan. I think he’ll be true to the world and take it in unexpected directions. It’s got a lot of sinew in it. It will certainly stand up to the others and probably break a lot of new ground as well.”

Alien 5 never made it into production, but that wasn’t the end of Weaver getting offers to join a new Alien movie. Producer Walter Hill had sent her a 50-page treatment for “a different take on a fifth Ripley film” back in the summer of 2020. Hill produced every Alien movie and has a story credit for Aliens.

Whatever was in that treatment failed to spark Weaver’s interest in stepping back into Ripley’s spacesuit – then, or maybe ever. “I don’t know,” she said. “Ridley (Scott) has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”

Of course the Alien franchise has and will continue on. In addition to the previously-released AVP: Alien vs Predator (2004), Aliens vs Predator – Requiem (2007), Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), there is a new feature coming to Hulu. Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez is currently filming a new Alien movie for Hulu where he teased the movie for Alien Day on social media.

While the new movie’s premise is unknown, 20th Century Studios has confirmed the film will follow “a group of young people on a distant world, who find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”