Alien Cast: Every Actor and Director by Film

Sigourney Weaver, credited as Ripley in four films, is the one fixture of the Alien cast, and every other film brings in a new crew. The table gives the top billed names for each film, and the sections after it name who each film put on screen.

Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, gives Tom Skerritt the first billing as Dallas, with Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, Harry Dean Stanton as Brett, John Hurt as Kane, Ian Holm as Ash and Yaphet Kotto as Parker. Helen Horton voices the ship's computer, Mother. The AFI Catalog records the film as Weaver's first lead role, and Hurt took over the part of Kane from Jon Finch.

Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron, keeps Weaver and adds a large ensemble: Carrie Henn as Newt, Michael Biehn as Corporal Hicks, Paul Reiser as the company man Burke, Lance Henriksen as the android Bishop and Bill Paxton as Private Hudson. Jenette Goldstein plays Private Vasquez, Al Matthews plays Sergeant Apone and William Hope plays Lieutenant Gorman. Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher, swaps the marines for the prisoners of Fiorina 161, led by Charles S. Dutton as Dillon and Charles Dance as the doctor Clemens, with Pete Postlethwaite in the cast and Henriksen returning as Bishop II. Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, adds Winona Ryder as Call, Ron Perlman as Johner and Dominique Pinon as Vriess.

Prometheus (2012) is led by Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw and Michael Fassbender as the android David, with Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers, Idris Elba as Janek and Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland. Alien: Covenant (2017) lets Fassbender play two roles, credited as David / Walter, opposite Katherine Waterston as Daniels, Billy Crudup as Oram and Danny McBride as Tennessee. Alien: Romulus (2024), directed by Fede Álvarez, is built around Cailee Spaeny as Rain and David Jonsson as her android brother Andy, with Archie Renaux as Tyler, Isabela Merced as Kay, Spike Fearn as Bjorn and Aileen Wu as Navarro. More on each character sits on the Alien characters page.

Bolaji Badejo is credited as the Alien in Alien (1979), and later films credit their xenomorph performers in different ways. Tom Woodruff Jr. is credited as the Alien in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Trevor Newlin as the Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus and Robert Bobroczkyi as the Offspring in the same film. Ian Whyte appears as Scar in AVP: Alien vs. Predator and as the Predator in Requiem. Sanaa Lathan and Lance Henriksen (as Charles Bishop Weyland) lead the first of those crossover films, and David Paetkau and Sam Trammell lead the second. For the creature itself, see the xenomorph page.

Five directors made the seven main and prequel films, and Ridley Scott directed three of them: Alien (1979), Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. James Cameron directed Aliens (1986), David Fincher directed Alien 3 (1992), Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed Alien Resurrection (1997) and Fede Álvarez directed Alien: Romulus (2024). Scott opened the series in 1979 and returned for the two prequels, which follow Resurrection in release order but sit earlier in the Alien timeline.

The crossover films have their own directors. Paul W. S. Anderson directed AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), and the brothers Colin Strause and Greg Strause directed Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007). Those two sit outside the main watch order, which is laid out in the Alien movies in order guide.

TheWrap has reported that Jeunet had almost total freedom on Alien Resurrection, and that Fincher made a warning call to him. Fincher's own film, Alien 3, was set in the Fiorina 161 prison, a long way from the corridors of the Nostromo. Álvarez directed Alien: Romulus, which began production in Budapest with Scott among the producers.

The composers changed with each film as well: Jerry Goldsmith scored Alien (1979), James Horner scored Aliens, Elliot Goldenthal scored Alien 3, John Frizzell scored Alien Resurrection, Marc Streitenfeld scored Prometheus, Jed Kurzel scored Alien: Covenant and Benjamin Wallfisch scored Alien: Romulus. The Alien soundtrack page covers the scores in more detail, and each film has its own page, including Alien 1979, Aliens 1986, Alien 3 and Alien Romulus.

Sigourney Weaver is the main returning actor in the Alien films, and the others who come back tend to return as a different character. Weaver plays Ripley in four films, and in Alien Resurrection she plays a clone called Ripley 8 rather than the original woman. In my opinion, that is the cleverest bit of casting continuity in the saga, because the audience keeps the face while the character is genuinely new.

Lance Henriksen is the best example of a return with a twist. He plays the android Bishop in Aliens, Bishop II in Alien 3 and, in AVP: Alien vs. Predator, a different character altogether, the billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland. The franchise has also used androids as a casting device. Ian Holm plays Ash in Alien (1979), and in Alien: Romulus he is credited as the facial and vocal reference for the character Rook, with Daniel Betts credited for the facial and vocal performance. Michael Fassbender plays David in Prometheus and then both David and Walter in Alien: Covenant, where he is billed first.

The sequel to Alien: Romulus has no announced cast. TheWrap reported on 5 September 2025 that Fede Álvarez will not direct it, though he co-wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues and will produce alongside Ridley Scott while the studio looks for a new director. No replacement director has been named in reporting to date. On 3 August 2026, 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell replied "Nope" on X to a report that the film had been shelved, according to Yahoo. That reply is not a greenlight, and no start of filming or release date has been set.

Several rumors surround the project and should be treated as exactly that. One report says the sequel was shelved over creative differences between Scott and Álvarez about using David (Fassbender) in a film by another director, and that report is denied. Another says Álvarez wanted Fassbender back as David, which is unconfirmed. A third says Brian Duffield is writing a separate Alien film for 20th Century Studios, which is reported but not confirmed. The current status is tracked on the Alien Romulus 2 page, and the Alien movies hub shows where Romulus sits in the series.