Ridley Scott finally revealed what links his “Alien” prequel “Prometheus” to his next installment in the saga, “Alien: Covenant,” during 20th Century Fox’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas.
The studio has released multiple looks at the summer horror. None, however, addressed why “Prometheus” sole survivors, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and shady android David (Michael Fassbender), seem to be missing from the action (Fassbender has appeared in promos, but as new android Walter) … or if the pair even made it to the Engineers’ home world in the end.
However, new footage that screened Thursday for CinemaCon attendees offers some answers.
It kicks off with one major reveal: the spacecraft that Elizabeth and David boarded at the end of “Prometheus” did indeed make it to its destination. To greet their incoming guests, hundreds of Engineers are seen gathered in the docking area.
David, who was nothing but a severed robot head by the end of “Prometheus,” is now fully operational in a complete body, and comes out to observe the crowd from a deck on the ship. It’s then that the ship unspools black bombs that cover the entire civilization in a black ooze that melts their bodies.
“The gods have rejected mankind as cruel, weak and full of greed,” David then says in a voiceover. “They are a dying species, grasping for resurrection. So they are leaving the earth forever.”
He continues, “But their power is an illusion. They don’t deserve to start again, and I’m not going to let them.”
The footage seems to suggest that “Covenant’s” new crew land on the Engineers’ now-abandoned home years after David’s wiped out its inhabitants — and that he’s responsible for seeding it with nasty alien critters that terrorize the group.
Making up the crew are: Danny McBride, Katherine Waterston, James Franco, Demian Bichir, Billy Crudup, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England and Benjamin Rigby.
Rapace doesn’t appear in the footage, so it’s still unclear how her fate will be addressed in the new film, which she is slated to star in.
“Alien: Covenant” opens May 19, 2017.