If Prometheus doubled down on existential themes of discovery and chronicling our history amid the cosmos, then Alien: Covenant is primed to steer Ridley Scott’s prequel back to the franchise’s dark, acid-spewing roots.
At least, that’s according to Michael Fassbender. The Light Between Oceans actor spoke to Collider over the weekend, revealing that Covenant is shaping up to be “much scarier” than its divisive forebear.
Similar to how James Cameron expanded the series into full-blown action territory with the remarkable Aliens in ’86, it appears that Fox’s prized sci-fi series will use Covenant to circle back to the horror elements associated with Ridley Scott’s original genre classic, Alien.
“This Alien is going to be… I’m very excited to see it and everybody in the film was saying this is a film that we all want to see. It’s much scarier than Prometheus but it’s got the same sort of scope of Prometheus. It’s kind of got more of the sort of thriller, imminent disaster feel that Alien had, so it’s kind of a beautiful meeting of both of those films. I’m really excited to see it, I think it’s gonna be super scary number one and then again with the massive scope of Prometheus… Once it starts and the ball starts rolling, it doesn’t let up. It’s really gonna bring chills to the cinema.”
Danny McBride is in the driving seat for the 2017 sequel as the ship’s captain, presiding over a crew that includes Billy Crudup, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett, Katherine Waterston and Amy Seimetz.
Now that Ridley Scott has wrapped production, the VFX crack team at Fox are aligning Alien: Covenant for launch on August 6, 2017. In related news, earlier today we caught wind of James Cameron’s frank assessment of the cinematic abomination known as Alien 3.