While Alien: Covenant is unmistakably an Alien film, let's not forget that the film is actually a sequel to Prometheus. You'd be forgiven for thinking that, though, because so far it hasn't been entirely clear how the two films are connected. We know that android David (Michael Fassbender) and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) are in the film, but to what extent has yet to be seen. Luckily, now we have a better idea. New footage from Alien: Covenant has screened at CinemaCon, offering the first look at David and hinting that he has a lot more to do with the plot than initially believed.
Our own Eric Eisenberg was lucky enough to see this footage at CinemaCon, which has shown off tons of cool new footage from different upcoming films like Wonder Woman, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Dunkirk. Here's how it goes down:
(If you don't want to know absolutely anything about this film, you might want to look away.)
The footage kicks off with revealing that the ship containing Elizabeth and David at the end of Prometheus did, in fact, make it to its destination. The ship overlooks the planet's surface, hundreds of Engineers arriving to see what's going on. The ship opens up and David walks out. He looks worse for wear, but with a fully intact and operational body (he was just a dismembered head at the end of Prometheus). He observes the crowd below him, as the ship unspools black bombs that douse the crowd with a familiar looking black ooze. It's a bit unclear what's happening to the Engineers, but it is decidedly not good.
David then begins a voiceover speculating on the nature of men and gods. He views humanity as a dying species that is seeking resurrection by leaving for the stars. David isn't about to let them do that.
It's not incredibly clear if this is the same planet that the crew of the Covenant discovers or if it's some kind of sister planet, but the former seems most likely. The popular theory is that David, for whatever reason, has taken his experiments from Prometheus and scaled them up exponentially. It seems like he's created an entire planet of Xenomorphs, and the Covenant crew is unfortunate enough to discover it. What this means for Elizabeth Shaw, who was nowhere to be seen in the footage, is unknown, but her odds aren't looking good.
Alien: Covenant follows a crew of humans (and one android) who discover a new planet. However, thing soon take a turn for the worse as they realize they are not alone and the planet is inhabited by deadly killing machines. The film is directed by Ridley Scott and is expected to hit theaters on May 19, 2017.
