While Ridley Scott’s 2012 Alien prequel was received well by critics and audiences alike, some fans of the franchise were a bit disappointed by the conspicuous absence of the most familiar forms of the xenomorphs from the series. Those fans will certainly be pleased to hear what Scott has planned for the upcoming Prometheus sequel, a film now officially titled Alien: Covenant.
According to Scott, the 2017 film will “have them all.”
Speaking to The Wrap about Alien: Covenant, Scott indicated that the film will take Prometheus survivors Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender) to the home planet of the Engineers — the massive alien race that created the xenomorphs — on a journey that will also involve some encounters with a few very familiar monsters.
“There was always this discussion: Is Alien, the character, the beast, played out or not?” said Scott in referring to the conversations that led to the development of Covenant. “[In Covenant], we’ll have them all: egg, face-hugger, chest-burster, then the big boy. I think maybe we can go another round or two.”
“It felt bio-mechanoid, it felt like a weapon,” he said of the creature that made its debut in Scott’s terrifying, franchise-spawning 1979 film Alien. “And so the movie will explain that, and reintroduce the alien back into it.”
Directed by Scott from a script penned by Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Michael Green (Green Lantern), Alien: Covenant is the second chapter of a prequel trilogy that’s intended to connect directly with the events of 1979’s Alien and place the events of the original franchise in the context of everything that was discovered in Prometheus.
As for the aliens themselves, Scott indicated that he’s well aware of the important role those familiar, acid-dripping xenomorphs played in the success of the series — and isn’t planning to write them out of the overarching story.
“I knew I had something special with this creature that (H.R. Giger) designed,” said Scott of his initial reaction to the xenomorphs created by the celebrated artist for Alien. “Without that creature, the film wouldn’t have been the same.”
Alien: Covenant is currently scheduled to hit theaters October 6, 2017.
