Ripley was originally written as a male hero

Ripley was one of the first female action heroes in cinema, and her characteristics of strength and bravery inspired women all over world and continue to be a reference point for on-screen heroines to this day.

Even so, the character initially was going to be a man, with writer Dan O’ Bannon planning for all of the crew on the tug Nostromo spaceship to be male.

However, the visionary opted to change Ripley’s gender after realising that the studio believed in “the return of the woman’s movie”.

He recalled: “Looking over it, I thought, ‘Here’s this one character who’s not too interesting.’ And this studio - I hate to say this, but for very cynical reasons - this studio [20th Century Fox] is making 'Julia' and 'Turning Point' and they really believe in the return of the woman’s movie. [We’d] probably get a lot of points if we turn this character into a woman.”