For a long time, Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant was an unknown quantity. Billed as both a continuation of the beloved Alien franchise and a sequel to the poorly received Prometheus, fans prayed for more of the latter and less of the former. Well, they’ll get a pretty good idea of which they’ll receive on Thursday, as 20th Century Fox is attaching a full-length red band trailer for the film in front of screenings of the hotly anticipated Logan.
Christmas Day saw the release of a teaser trailer and last week saw a brilliant prologue scene entitled “Last Supper” debut, in which we got to know the crew of the colonization ship Covenant. We met them in the middle of their final meal before heading into cryosleep, giving us an opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the characters and their mission to form a new human settlement on a remote planet. The crew believe they’re going to an uncharted paradise. But, given that they’re in a movie franchise featuring chest-bursting bio-mechanical sex monsters, it’s probably safe to say they’re not.
Hype levels are at maximum for Covenant, with Ridley Scott returning to the xenomorphs he introduced to us in his all-time classic Alien back in 1979. It’s about time, too, as the last appearance of the iconic movie monster was in 2007’s Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, which was less terrifying and more cringeworthy. I, for one, hope that Scott stirs some Freudian psychological nightmare fuel back into the mix. Given that the film’s promotional material makes a point of saying that the main crew are all couples, things look good.
Alien: Covenant will be released on May 19, 2017.