What Alien designs would you like to see in the new film?

[Xenomorphine]

We don't need them. There would be no explanation for why they didn't show up in the second (or fourth) film.

Any Alien can function in the same role. That's what should make them so formidable. In fact, that's precisely what 'Aliens' actually does show, if you'll recall. Two normal adult Aliens standing guard by the Queen.

If we want to have bigger/different Aliens, then just give them more exotic hosts. You can have as many as you like, that way! No need for some unnecessary 'praetorian' role. There could be an entire nest of Aliens of all different sizes and shapes, if they've all had different types of hosts.

[Engineer]

We don't need them. There would be no explanation for why they didn't show up in the second (or fourth) film.

Any Alien can function in the same role. That's what should make them so formidable. In fact, that's precisely what 'Aliens' actually does show, if you'll recall. Two normal adult Aliens standing guard by the Queen.

If we want to have bigger/different Aliens, then just give them more exotic hosts. You can have as many as you like, that way! No need for some unnecessary 'praetorian' role. There could be an entire nest of Aliens of all different sizes and shapes, if they've all had different types of hosts.

Yep! I completely agree with xenomorphine! I don't think praetorians are necessary, and even take away from the threat of the standard-issue aliens. I think the idea of a praetorian works well in the EU, especially video games, but I think it would be a bad decision for a movie...

[HuDaFuK]

We don't need them. There would be no explanation for why they didn't show up in the second (or fourth) film.

Perhaps they only crop up in much larger Hives, once the population has passed a certain size? There you go - explanation.

[Kel G 426]

They could be portrayed as the result of genetic tinkering.  A hybrid of warrior and queen maybe?

[Corporal Hicks]

Termites (as a close analogy to Aliens) also have different castes - soldiers and workers. Assuming the adults we've seen are the workers, there's still a gap in their caste system for the soldiers (Praetorians). Or we can assume that the 2 different appearances we've seen (smooth and ridge headed) are the different castes.

But there certainly is space in their ecology for different roles.

[Engineer]

I like the idea of smooth head vs. rigid head being indicative of different roles.

But to elaborate a little more on what I said... I agree with the part of xenomorphine's comment that a praetorian isn't needed in the film, and might even hurt the film by making the rest of the hive look less menacing. But yes, there is a very easy explanation for why they might/would exist in the hive hierarchy. Again, I think it works well in the EU, but I don't want to see it in a film until they've earned my trust back in regards to their ability to make the alien scary again.

[Xenomorphine]

Perhaps they only crop up in much larger Hives, once the population has passed a certain size? There you go - explanation.

But what would be the point? To have a different-looking Alien? The normal ones can already do that with different hosts.

Also, I've never seen one which looks great. They're always seem to be like a Queen with better legs, minus the extra arms. Big, chunky and bulky... They'd just be big targets, like a Queen would be. None of the speed/mobility of the normal ones.

[Engineer]

Perhaps they only crop up in much larger Hives, once the population has passed a certain size? There you go - explanation.

But what would be the point? To have a different-looking Alien? The normal ones can already do that with different hosts.

Also, I've never seen one which looks great. They're always seem to be like a Queen with better legs, minus the extra arms. Big, chunky and bulky... They'd just be big targets, like a Queen would be. None of the speed/mobility of the normal ones.

"Maybe it's like an ant hive..." Lol

Ants' hierarchy typically includes a queen, males (smaller, and far less numerous), worker, and soldier. I'd imagine a praetorian would serve as the soldier role, while all the other aliens serve as the workers.

[Xenomorphine]

In that case, praetorians would have been making up most of the nest. We know the colonists were doing their damnedest to fight back.

Instead, we see normal adults not only doing all the actual fighting, but guarding the Queen, herself. If any role would have demanded praetorians, that would have done.

Aliens = one-size-fits-all.

[Engineer]

Aliens = one-size-fits-all.

Well, yea, based on what we saw in the movies, I completely agree! Again, I dont want to see a praetorian in the movie... :-)

Ants usually have a soldier class that makes up a very small fraction compared to ther worker class, and they usually stand guard at the entrance of the hill (yes I had to look this up). But then again, not every species of ant follows the same class system... Army ants have no soldier class; the works function as soldiers too. And yea, again, I agree with xenomorphine, based on what we saw in the movies, the aliens did seem more like army ants in that regard.


If... And that's a BIG IF... By some miracle, Neil Blomkamp pulls off a good alien movie and this turns into a new trilogy (which is the big fad these days), there is one type of alien I would like to see in a film eventually (but not yet, I want them to earn my trust back), and oddly enough it, it sort of fits in with a lot of what everyone else has posted they want to see...

It's big, kinda praetorian-ish
It's white-ish
It's Lankier than usual
It's got an extra elongated head

How many of you remember the "carrier" from that old ps2 RTS avp game? Avp: extinction, I believe. The game was terrible, and had the MOST disappointing ending EVER!! But the carrier did put this image in my head that I think would be cool as hell in a movie! For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, the carrier was a special alien subspecies that could carry between 6 to 12 facehuggers on its back. It was the same whitish color as the facehuggers, and it "evolved" from a praetorian (I don't think it needs to be linked in with a praetorian though, just a subspecies with a very specific role/function). In the game, it allowed you to move facehuggers in to the enemy base very rapidly without killing the facehuggers too easily.

Ever since that game, I've had this image of a creepy alien like this run in to a room full of marines and while it's ripping into the marines it's also got about a dozen facehuggers leaping off its back in every direction and attaching to the nearest marines as they panic and try to fight back!

How cool would that be??

[KiramidHead]

I say thy should either keep it simple, drawing from the first two movies, or go full Kenner.

[Engineer]

I say thy should either keep it simple, drawing from the first two movies, or go full Kenner.

I agree with this 100%... Except the Kenner part. No Kenner variants please! The carrier I mentioned, I think would be really cool to see, but I highly doubt anyone could make it as cool as the vision I have in my head! Lol. So, yea, just drawing from the first two movies is my preference in large... :-)

[Born Of Cold Light]

While I think that the Queen should be able to to reproduce without mating, I think introducing a male mate might be interesting, as it could lead to a more powerful variant, due to the interaction of different genetics due to sexual reproduction.  Combine this with egg morphing, and you could have a species that could, with all honesty, be called 'the perfect organism.'

[blood.]

Aliens = one-size-fits-all.

Well, yea, based on what we saw in the movies, I completely agree! Again, I dont want to see a praetorian in the movie... :-)

Ants usually have a soldier class that makes up a very small fraction compared to ther worker class, and they usually stand guard at the entrance of the hill (yes I had to look this up). But then again, not every species of ant follows the same class system... Army ants have no soldier class; the works function as soldiers too. And yea, again, I agree with xenomorphine, based on what we saw in the movies, the aliens did seem more like army ants in that regard.


If... And that's a BIG IF... By some miracle, Neil Blomkamp pulls off a good alien movie and this turns into a new trilogy (which is the big fad these days), there is one type of alien I would like to see in a film eventually (but not yet, I want them to earn my trust back), and oddly enough it, it sort of fits in with a lot of what everyone else has posted they want to see...

It's big, kinda praetorian-ish
It's white-ish
It's Lankier than usual
It's got an extra elongated head

How many of you remember the "carrier" from that old ps2 RTS avp game? Avp: extinction, I believe. The game was terrible, and had the MOST disappointing ending EVER!! But the carrier did put this image in my head that I think would be cool as hell in a movie! For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, the carrier was a special alien subspecies that could carry between 6 to 12 facehuggers on its back. It was the same whitish color as the facehuggers, and it "evolved" from a praetorian (I don't think it needs to be linked in with a praetorian though, just a subspecies with a very specific role/function). In the game, it allowed you to move facehuggers in to the enemy base very rapidly without killing the facehuggers too easily.

Ever since that game, I've had this image of a creepy alien like this run in to a room full of marines and while it's ripping into the marines it's also got about a dozen facehuggers leaping off its back in every direction and attaching to the nearest marines as they panic and try to fight back!

How cool would that be??

VERY. I've actually had something like that in my mind for a while. I'm writing some fanfiction as a hobby and one of the stories involves a runner alien queen's hive being threatened and she gathers hundreds of her facehugger babies like the spider pic above, and overwhelms her oppressors like the confrontation you describe!

I'd love to see a runner alien queen in a movie btw, like the queen in aliens just on all fours(and faster). If an alien infestation establishes itself before a human presence is added then I'd be inclined to think the queen would be a runner type queen.

[Bughunter S. Thomson]

I think Blomkamp has been given an opportunity to simplify the Xenomorph and should take full advantage of it. Although my favourite Alien is probably from Alien 3, I think they should steer clear of the host influencing the Alien's appearance. The life cycle of the Alien itself is complex enough. Giger's original design should maybe belong in Ridley's Prometheus world should it ever appear again, but this feels like a spiritual successor to Aliens and I'd be happy with an updated version of the more 'buggy' Alien without the dome crest and exposed skull.

It's a miracle that this has happened, after the disappointment of Prometheus I was sure the franchise I love was never getting the sequel I wanted. But I want the continuation to be natural, not 'There are 151 Pokemon, oh wait there are another 500, buy more of our product.' Creature design is an art and every time I've seen designs to expand the family on classic icons I am always let down and they feel like poor imitations (Predators, Terminator Salvation, avp2, Prometheus to name a few). Focus more on the characters that aren't bleeding acid.