The ideal cast for a live-action Metroid movie
Mother Brain – Sigourney Weaver
Mother Brain, an A.I. computer program created by the Chozo that ends up going rogue, is often considered the main antagonist of the Metroid series, although Mother Brain, unlike Ridley, doesn’t even appear in every Metroid game. However, the basis of the plot for Metroid: Zero Mission revolves around Mother Brain’s ambition to rule the galaxy.
Similar to Ridley being named after Sir Ridley Scott, Mother Brain was possibly named after “Mother,” the computer onboard Nostromo, the spaceship and setting for the original Alien film. Mother Brain may also have been partially inspired by HAL 9000, the sentient computer that becomes the villain in the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Mother Brain is usually seen as a giant brain with a single eye inside a large tube, so this character would need to be fully CGI. Although in some games Mother Brain is able to take on multiple forms, she only appears in her standard form in Metroid: Zero Mission, so her voice-over actress would really have to excel in order to make Mother Brain sound menacing, intelligent, cunning, and malevolent, all at the same time. While modern gamers would point to voice over actress Ellen McLain as a top candidate, mostly due to her critically acclaimed role as the villainous A.I. GLaDOS in the Portal video game franchise, there’s really only one actress that is so perfectly suited to voice Mother Brain: Sigourney Weaver.
Similar to Sir Patrick Stewart, Sigourney Weaver is incredibly synonymous with the science fiction genre in films, going all the way back to her breakout role as Ellen Ripley, the main protagonist in Alien. Weaver went on to reprise the role of Ripley in several sequels, even completing video game voice over work in Ripley-centered DLC for the Alien: Isolation.
According to Metroid’s creators, the idea to make Samus Aran a female occurred about halfway through the development of the original NES Metroid in 1986, right around the time when Aliens, the first Alien sequel featuring Weaver once again as Ripley, came out in theaters. In my opinion, if a Metroid film was made at some point during the 90s, Weaver being cast as Samus Aran would’ve easily been the most obvious choice.
Although Weaver has been in so many incredible film and TV roles, one only has to look at her most popular science fiction outings as further proof that she’s absolutely perfect for Mother Brain. Weaver has already had some practice playing a computer, as she was the voice of the ship Axiom in the animated Disney-Pixar film WALL-E. Yes, the Netflix and Marvel miniseries The Defenders was overall a big disappointment, but I thought that Weaver’s portrayal as Alexandra Reid, the leader of the evil ninja organization The Hand, was one of the very few highlights.
From Ghostbusters to Avatar and the fantastic Galaxy Quest, Weaver has never shied away from the genre that helped make her become an immortal part of pop culture. After doing so much for the sci-fi genre, is there anyone other than Weaver that deserves the part more? In my opinion, casting Weaver as Mother Brain would bring everything full-circle, and Nintendo would easily have one of the most anticipated science fiction films of all time!