Spoilers ahead for Alien: Covenant, and the Alien franchise as a whole.
It's a good time for fans of Ridley Scott's Alien franchise. Because in addition to the highly anticipated new installment Alien: Covenant, Scott has revealed that he'd be happy to make up to five more sequels in the coming years. Additionally, the mythos of the creatures is being explored in Covenant, with answers regarding the monsters' origins finally being answered after over 30 years. And while these revelations are a major reason why folks are so excited about Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott revealed some spoiler-filled new footage at South by Southwest.
During an event at this year's SXSW, Ridley Scott screened the original Alien movie and shared a sneak peek of Covenant. It was during this sneak peek (via The Verge) that some serious major spoilers were dropped, revealing some background on the franchise's horrifying Xenomorphs. The Verge described the sneak peek and new revelations, saying the following. Last chance, for those of you who don't want to learn some revealing Alien details.
The final preview scene starts on Michael Fassbender's android, David, who definitely is the Prometheus android, and not the new Covenant android, in this scene. David escorts Billy Crudup's character through what The Verge describes as a "personal workshop of biological terrors" David is explaining that, in an effort to fully understand the alien that they encountered in the finale of Prometheus, he has been experimenting with genetic mutations of these creatures, and that he has genetically engineered new versions of the Alien. David says that he has been waiting for one last piece of his genetic puzzle to fall into place, at which point he brings Crudup's character into a room that contains the four eggs that we know from Ridley Scott's original Alien. David's final puzzle piece is "mother," or a waiting host, and he wants Crudup's character to be that for him. Yikes!
Talk about a game changer. It looks like Alien: Covenant will give some very definitive answers regarding the franchise's backstory, finally revealing how the horrifying creatures came to be. It turns out they weren't created accidentally, but were genetically modified to be horrifying killing machines. Additionally, we may see the very first bonafide Xenomorph, as the "mother" is just waiting for a host in order to come to life and presumably rip some innocent people to shreds.
It should be interesting to see how these type of revelations affect the franchise moving forward. If Ridley Scott is indeed intending on making more movies with Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, then perhaps it will directly link to the events of Covenant. The knowledge we'll accrue during the upcoming sequel may be just what she needs to finally win the battle again the creatures.
Alien: Covenant will tear into theaters May 19, 2017.
