It’s been 30 years since Aliens, James Cameron‘s ballsy tonal-shift to Ridley Scott‘s 1979 Alien that went from a straight-up horror film to a full-on action flick with scares thrown in. And with that film, the character of Ellen Ripley, as played by Sigourney Weaver, went from being merely the savvy last survivor of the Nostromo to the greatest flamethrower-toting, loader-driving alien-queen-killer of all time, an icon for female action starts for decades that even garnered Weaver an Oscar nomination. It’s on her shoulders the Alien franchise up to now has rested, and we spoke to Weaver in San Diego about Ripley’s next adventure.

Following Aliens, we got two more, rather lackluster entries in the saga, with Alien 3 being the most troublesome and squandering a lot of great potential set up at the end of Aliens. Neill Blomkamp‘s upcoming Alien film will largely ignore everything that’s come after the 1986 film and catch up with Ripley 30 years later. But before we can get to that movie, as Weaver told us, we have to wait for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, which will bridge the gap we didn’t know needed bridging.

Weaver recognizes the history and importance of Ripley as a character and is visibly excited about the prospect of getting started on the next installment, clearly wowed by Blomkamp’s take on the franchise. But, as she says, Fox has asked them to put on the brakes and give Scott’s film time to breathe. But, but, but, RIPLEY! We want to see more Ripley right naaaaaaao!

Let us know your excitement level about the next Alien films in the comments below!

Image: 20th Century Fox

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!