Director James Cameron’s Aliens originally cast actor James Remar as Hicks, but the Alien sequel replaced the troubled star due to his off-set behavior. Released in 1986, Aliens was radically different from Alien, its franchise predecessor. Where director Ridley Scott’s original Alien was sparse, claustrophobic survival horror, James Cameron’s sequel was an action-forward thrill ride that dispensed with the small-scale chases and replaced them with big guns and bloody mayhem.
Where the cast of Alien was an unfortunate crew of working stiffs who proved entirely unprepared for the Xenomorph’s attacks, the cast of Aliens was hardened space marines who were more than ready to fight off the titular threat with serious firepower. Among the tough heroes was Hicks, one of few figures to make it out of Aliens alive alongside Sigourney Weaver’s franchise heroine Ripley. Played by Michael Biehn, Hicks was a strong but likable presence well-liked by many viewers of the Alien movies.
However, Hicks was not always such a placid figure. Originally, actor James Remar was cast as the character and had a darker take on the role. However, several unfortunate incidents resulted in Remar eventually being replaced by Biehn. In The Movies That Made Us season 3, Remar opens up about his drug problems while working on the sequel, admitting that his London apartment was raided by police who found hash and heroin. As Remar noted, at this point ‘you didn’t get sent to rehab’ when caught with drugs, meaning the production fired him after about a month of filming and replaced him with Terminator star Biehn. Unfortunately for the filmmakers, some of Hicks’ scenes had already been shot, resulting in reshoots and clever editing to insert Biehn’s replacement take on the role.
Remar’s turn is described as much more intense than Michael Biehn's more zen take on Hicks, meaning the change may have been for the better in the long term. Although Remar expressed regret about “screwing over so many people” due to his struggles with addiction (singling out Alien screenwriter Walter Hill in particular, who gave the actor his start), many felt the warmer incarnation of Hicks was one of the franchise’s best characters. Not only that, but Remar was also able to get his career back on track after tackling his addiction, despite another Aliens on-set incident that could have proven much more serious than his arrest for drug use.
In Pinewood Studios, Aliens and The Little Shop of Horrors were shot side-by-side, resulting in a fortunately non-lethal accident during their production. Remar fired a prop gun that was intended to be loaded with blanks into the side of The Little Shop of Horrors set, blasting a hole in their wall. The incident prompted his co-star Al Matthews to question where Remar found live ammunition on-set, but fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. That said, firing a gun into another shooting set (even accidentally) likely also contributed to Remar being let go from the production of Aliens, despite his drugs arrest being the deciding factor.