20th Century Fox Officially Announce Alien: Covenant and its Official Plot & Release Date!

Finally some interesting news!

I just hope Ridley doesn't change the title too much because Im too lazy to change the title of my fanmade posters.

After reading this I decided to make my Alien covenant poster in less than 10 minutes,here it is:

I prefer the Paradise Lost title, but very exciting news nonetheless! I liked the thought of the movie following David and Shaw through their Paradise adventures, but they are going with the same formula as Alien and Prometheus (land on alien planet, bad stuff hapens) so I think the movie has a good chance to succeed. Hopefully the characters are stronger than they were in Prometheus! I also hope that the design of the Covenant is a bit closer to the feel of the Nostromo. Just a bit, haha I don't expect an Alien: Isolation type of recreation. You know, more claustrophobic and at this point in time, like, retro. Aw man I can ALREADY HARDLY WAIT!! 

ALIEN COVENANT =  LOST PARADISE>>>Doomed colony vessel discovers the remnants of a war in heaven and rips into the Alien abyss!  Interesting they find David by his lonesome...Shaw must have found her Paradise somewhere else? 

Awesome poster Dark Nebula! Gives me a 1980's Aliens vibe.....Maybe make one that says October 8th 1987! How about one with a 1970's feel? Please?

Maybe they need to rescue miss Shaw? David might be stranded on the planet...and Shaw is off world?

I would like to go with the idea that Shaw gets rescued, and continues on to Part III, as opposed to being killed-off. But I'm biased. I adore Noomi Rapace and her character Shaw. 

The Plot Synopsis is interesting... does seem to not quite fit what Ridley had said before....  Here is a Plot Synopsis made by me that incorporates what Ridley had been saying about the Next Movie over the last 2 years.

After the discovery that Mankind's Origins did not originate from Earth, and horrid truth that our potential creators wanted our destruction. David and Shaw go off in search of the Origins of the Engineers. Shaw still holding the belief that there has to be a Higher Creator to the Mortal Engineers they came across after the Project Prometheus....  Shaw has many unanswered Questions... will David be merely a Passenger on this Voyage or now Free, does he have his own Agenda... Will Shaw Find Paradise... or will Paradise be a Living Hell?  And will they finally meet their Maker? Or their undoing? Is creation and the universe divine and with splendour or disaster and with sacrifice.

The above Plot Synopsis covers everything what Ridley had hinted at over the years.... the end of the first movie left Two Open Endings to Exlpore..... Ridley said that logically you can only go forward one way, and that would be to follow Shaw and David on their mission to find Paradise.

Ridley then futher over the last 18 months or so teased us that, Paradise could be a very dark and ominous place, and that the beings they would finally meet are not Gods, not in the traditional sense, but beings who are far from Benevolent.

Ridley hinted that our Engineers or indeed what Shaw finds would relate more to Fallen Angels than God. Even hinting at the Devil.

He hinted before that, that they never wanted to meet God in the first movie... this hinting that Engineers are not God or Gods, and this would lend weight to Shaws Faith in wanting to find out who created them (Engineers).

David would be carrying Hell with him (Cargo) and what happens if the Goo infects Machine? or God?

Ridley latter hinted that Shaw and David will go on their mission to get answers, but what they uncover is far from what maybe Shaw would be expecting.

What they would find would be a Scene of a Disaster...... which hints at a catastrophe on Paradise like witnessed on LV-223?

Ridley hinted that they are going to go the route to show who and why the Biological Warefare was created (Goo? or Xeno) and was it created to protect them.. but from who?    They would be aiming to eventually show us more of how the Xeno came to be but this would be left for a 3rd movie or even a 4th... but the seeds would be planted as far as start to show Who created the Biology that would eventually lead to the Alien in the first movie.

Ridley hinted the movie would follow some themes from Paradise Lost, but he was vague about it but it would however have a similar tone to it but thats where it ends......

Then he hinted that as in Paradise Lost, you had one Attractive Guy who did what ever they want, had all the fun and all the Girls... while one Less Attractive Guy stayed at home being boring.... 

He then hinted at not only how does creation occur, but how is it that certain Planets have the right Properties to be able to Support Life.... is all that Accidental? Was the Big Bang even what happened? 

He Also hinted before at how can we take for granted that Mankind was the Engineers only creation and Earth the only World they created life..... he also touched upon this not long ago by saying that Earth is not the only Place that may have Human Life.

And where is the Big Guy behind all this...?

He did add few more things over the years but they are all very Bold Ideas..... and he collaborated with Dark Horse for how they would cover the Goo/Xeno and Engineers so as to not tread on anyones toes but that they was in the end all the same Toes anyway....

Well the latest Plot Synopsis seems to differ from what we have been fed over the years....

Is it more than coincidence that Blomkamps Alien 5 that was going well, and liked by Ridley and planned, but had a few things that clashed with ideas for a Prometheus sequel and how Ridley wanted to handle certain aspects....

To now the Movie on Hold, and who knows what will become of it...  Now we get not ONE but TWO Name Changes that both start with the Prefix Alien:  and we get news of Another Group of Travelers inbound to same place David and Shaw are off too, then just before the 2nd Change we get News that there is a new Writer Hired to Make Changes to the STORY

Finally to get a Synopsis that seems to imply that David Alone reaches some World far in the Galaxy, that somehow another group of Explorers is heading to the same place to discover David all alone?  Do they accidentaly discover the same Place... and if its what they hopped to be Paradise but then its not and dark place when they find it, surely they would detect it was not a ideal Paradise World if they found it on their own accord?   Only explantion is they intercepted some transmision and directions from Shaw or David that led them to also think they would be finding Paradise!

Is David waiting their to great them? or has he laid a Trap.... how can this movie link more to Alien than Prometheus if the World is a Dead place with No Life..... something tells me David may be wanting to Play God and use this Crew as Test Subjects...

This is what it seems we are looking at... another kind of Alien/Star Beast as opposed to Prometheus kind of Plot or what Prometheus 2 seemed to be leading us to....

We shall have to give it time, but this news looks like some Changes have been made to what Clues Ridley had been giving over the Years.... surely he has not had a U-Turn Last Minute and if so how long before he made such a U-Turn.

So far I imagine that Shaw is just going to be discovered later in the movie. I am trying to think of the words! I imagine her being, like, in with Paradise, Since I assume that the world will be like a biomechanical/dark interconnnected place (everything is, like, living and connected somehow, kind of) and Shaw wil end up being almost like the leader of the world. Plugged in. OR safe in cryosleep before David and/or the new crew brings he rinto the movie. OR she is, like I thik I saw somewhere on a post on this site, going to be having an adventure on another planet and be shown in a parallel plot. We will see I presume

Be interesting to see what happened to Shaw.... lets look at some Facts to a degree that make this Synopsis a little odd!

1) Ridley hints there is a interesting idea about how David ends up, this seems in regards to being from a Headless Corpse, but what about Shaw.... David maybe can do her no Harm Headless..... how did they leave LV-223 what state would David had to have been in, in order to Fly that Ship.... surely not Headless?

Ridley hinted that Shaw would eventually put him back together.... this was a while ago mind, but does this mean put him back together before they left?

How does David Pilot the Ship with out being assembled? Can Shaw Fly the Ship with Davids Help? Does she go into Cryo-Sleep?

2) Does David do something or use Shaw in some way before they get to Paradise? Is Shaw used in this interesting idea for David? Does he use her Body? Does he have Shaw on that Ship in Stasis? Has he infected Shaw before they arrive at Paradise.?

Seems missed opportunity.

3) So the World is dead, only David is left alone.... yet the Explorers hope to find Paradise too, surely if such a world is Dark and Dead then the Ships Sensors would show this... or at least a World like LV-223 and thus nothing like Paradise... or Earth... do these explorers happen to by coincidence in search of worlds to colonize and find the same place that David is on and what more coincidence if this is the supposed Homeworld of the Engineers.

Did they detect a signal from David and Shaw, was it a Signal from Paradise? or wherever David is.... or was it a transmision that Shaw had send as they left or before they left LV-223 but either way did this Colony Ship lock onto any signal or transmision that leads them to this place?

4) So what of the Engineers, what of who ever is above the Engineers and other grand things Ridley hinted at, and how do we get to see seeds to Alien and a movie that backs into it from the back end?  Are they all dead?  Dead upon Arival of David?  Are there any clues as to what happened to them, any evidence left behind and remnants of such Evil Biology?  Or is it the Biology that David has on his Ship that comes into play.... or has he already done so by the time the Travelers Arrive?

5) What year are we talking about? How many years after Prometheus? And bare in Mind Prometheus was the Jewel in the Weyland Fleet by the time of 2091 or why else would Weyland Travel on such a important last mission on a inferior ship.... Bare in mind Prometheus Traveled at less than 20LY per Year.......  How Far in the Galaxy was this Colony Ship when it some how decided to go to the Planet that David is on?

Yes Weyland Site has contradictions on Space Travel...  POL 6362 discovered in year 2071 distance 3249 LY and futherest planet a Manned Mission had been to (note this does not have to mean it was Manned in 2071) But Prometheus would have taken over 160 years to reach such a place?   The Futhest place from Earth in our Galaxy is 980'000 LY.

6) How does this back into Alien?  Timeline wise we have to remember Alien is set 28 years after..... Prometheus and well it seems unless they are changing the idea.... or using Time Travel... that the Space Jockey had been on LV-426 for a much longer time than 28 years never mind less....

Unless it will lead to events that show the creation or explanation of a Organism that is most like the Alien?

7) How does a movie where a Group of Colonist find David and a place of Disaster, and what we can only assume would be events that would lead to more Death and Horror than Prometheus Gave us... and maybe some Organism related to the Goo and Xeno... how does such a thing and Horrors which lead to a 3rd movie that even then may not quite get to the Back End of Alien?

Only way that makes sense to all of this and fingers crossed..... and so as to not contradict the Timeline.... (i.e our Explorers Survivors getting back to tell of Tales of the Xeno before Alien/Aliens...) Never mind what becomes of LV-223...

Is that Alien:Covenant is a sequel to the prequel Prometheus but is set after events of Part 3...

I.e David is on Paradise... and awaits new Travelers long after the event of him and Shaw ariving there, it would make more sense if such a event and meeting of Engineers and getting some answers was a event that happens that leads to disaster, and Alien: Covenant will cover the finding of the Aftermath of such a Event.... And that Part 3 or the end of Part to may start to show.... Flash Backs to Events that led David to Paradise and why we see no Engineers or other beings and why we see no Shaw...

So Part 2 is set after Part 3 if you get me?

@cuponator3000

Interesting...... "Shaw wil end up being almost like the leader of the world. Plugged in"

I had a source who had supposed leaks to the movie, that i had in March and i was told not to put everything on here.... and Ridleys comments from the Summer all seemed to kind of add up to what they was saying....

One thing they told me when answering the rumours of Hell on Earth and Shaw dies Plot.... was... Shaw Technically does not Die... now what does that mean?  To Technically not die must mean she is either in Cryosleep... as they also said before that.. that Shaw plays a smaller part because she would be incapacitated for the most part.

Or that Shaw is either Evolved into something else... or used for something else... or some part of her Survives while another part does not...

They also did say to me in March that some concept work showed a Humanoid Figure attached to a Bio-Mechanical Machine or Wall, and compared it to a Gigers Take on the Super Man 3 Robot Girl Scene.... So maybe yes Shaw gets Plugged in... or something to that effect.

But the thing is the New Synopsis  does not quite fit the Stuff i was Told but not much was told anyway... but certainly the New synopsis  does not seem to be touching upon anything to do with the Engineers, what happened on Paradise or LV-223 and any connection to Paradise Lost or indeed beings above the Engineers.....

Saying that if this Synopsis   was leaked with the Alien:Covenant Name by someone on this forum and not by Ridley or Fox, then if you looked at it... it would not fit at all with what Ridley had been saying upto the point of name change to Alien:Paradise Lost or indeed the things he said over the years and the pretense as to what way they was going with the Sequel....

So its all very odd... unless the New Writter is brought in to dramatically change the Plot to tie more to Alien and somehow maybe make some themes Blomkamp was going to explore with Alien 5 .. Redundant.

I may be reading too much into this new synopsis, but am I the only one who reacted to the "synthetic" part? Why the apostrophes? Are they hinting that David may not be entirely synthetic any longer?

It would be interesting if we find that David has been applying the black goo to himself in hopes of transforming himself into something more organic.

Also, wasn't there a rumor once upon a time about multiple Davids? I wonder how this fits in to the story, unless things have changed since then.

Of course they may just be referring to another version of David on board the Covenant, but what if there's more to it than that. What if David has been trying to play God with the goo and seed this planet with some bio-mechanical offspring from himself?

Either way, I hope they're not going down the simple route of David experimenting with goo on the crew of The Covenant. Seems too deja-vu to me.

BigDave, this is all becoming rather interesting. They have had a script, albeit many versions, for a good while now. The info leaking out slowly in the past couple years, by Ridley and others, does seem to be contradicted by this plot synopsis. I like how you sad imagine if this synopsis wasn't oficially posted, it is making me wonder about some things. 

So maybe the wrtier being brought in is indeed making some dramatic changes. I am not sure though. Hasn't the script for Covenant gone through like 16 drafts? I don't expect each new draft for a movie to be a dramatic reimagining or rewrite, but maybe after that many drafts and a couple different writers the story evolved into something else! I am willing to bet Ridley Scott had the intentions of taking the story in the direction that he has stated so many times in interviews, especially since he said he had the ideas of where to go from talking with Lindeloff during the making of Prometheus. But after so many rewrites and new perspectives on the story the ideas probably evolved.

The more I think about it, the more I think Shaw might have just as large a role in the film as Prometheus, but who knows. Even though I doubt it will happen, I like BigDave's idea that this movie's events will take place after the third. The third would have Shaw and David on Paradise. 

It is tough right now to organize my thoughts with so little information unfortunately. There are so many ways this story can go and I just started tihnking them through haha, but I have a sneaking suspiscion that we will find out plenty about Shaw before the release. Haha this is bringing me back to the year or two leading up to Promtheus when I spent everyday on this site...here's to another couple years!

Last thing, Mr. C, I didn't notice the quotes around synthetic in the synopsis but I think you may be right that he ins't totally an android anymore. Either they are playing him as more human than android anymore or they will go the route darkhorse went with the Prometheus fire and stone comics with... (SPOILER) 

...android being infected with the black goo and becoming more than an android, more than a human, and he called himself an engineer. He said he was on the level of them now, that they were his kin. So that type of thing is a possibility, minus the comic book-y transformation and what not.

I think the Sequel had gone through 18 drafts by the time it was completed, Ridley had said in November 2014 its done.... a source i had said that it was complete as of October 2014.... 

So changes could be made yes, but i am not sure whole sale Changes could had been made within the period that Ridley had came out with as far as Logan... but lets look at it this way when Ridley said he (John Logan ) was working on the draft, Logan could have started work on it a while back and not just starting work on it? But who knows.... some did say that its a bit short notice to start changes to the Story just 2 Months before Shooting? or so it was said.... but we did have a May 2017 release date thats now put back to October 2017 thats a 5 Month Delay and maybe that can account for changes?  But then Shooting is to start Febuary? or is it now Production is due to mainly start Febuary now 4-5 Months after it was reported Production would start? or had started?

Maybe they can shoot in Febuary scenes that had not been changed much by the re-write?

So we cant be sure how much has been changed...  i think the bare bones would still remain, and maybe as much as 50% of the draft could be re-shaped? who knows!

Looking at Plot Synopsis we cant read to much into them..... here is Prometheus one..

"The discovery of a clue to mankind's origins on Earth leads a team of explorers to the darkest parts of the universe. Two brilliant young scientists lead the expedition. Shaw (Noomi Rapace) hopes that they will meet a race of benevolent, godlike beings who will in some way verify her religious beliefs, while Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) is out to debunk any spiritual notions. However, neither the scientists nor their shipmates are prepared for the unimaginable terrors that await them."

This does not give us full details to what actually happens.... Only things this covers that happened are.

1) Promethes sets off to a World that they hopped to find clues to Mankinds Origins based on Clues Shaw and Holloway found but this place is far from the darkest parts of the Universe (39LY is a stone throw for our Galaxy).

2) Shaw does hope to find beings that could relate to Godlike beings to confirm her Faiths version of creation, while Holloway believes that they would find a more Scientific Explanation... which to a degree Holloway was correct.

3) They do find remains of a Civilisation who are connected to Mankind, who have been doing some pretty bad experiments on the World they land on, and then they find one Alive who is far from Benevolent towards them and they even then find out these Godlike Beings are not Gods and futher they had intended to use something Horrific upon Mankind as some kind of Punishment? Or prehapse the Next Stage of Evolution.

4) Main Terror that awaits them is caused from the Actions of the crew, and meddling of the Ships Synthetic David...

But look at so much more that the Synopsis does not cover...

Multiple Davids? Who knows.. that was a rumour... one that was put to the source i had who simply said they cant say, but that seeing Army of Davids is not going to happen.....   Multiple could just me another thus 2... and Two is Multiple...

As far as David playing God, yes we could see that we saw seeds of this in the first Movie, and the Source does seem to point that David Playing God is a Big Part of the Plot.... as far as David being more than Synthetic?  Yes maybe.... Ridley had said David was bringing Hell with him and what happens if the Goo infected God or a Machine... this could mean that he unleashes it the Godlike beings they find.. or maybe the Godlike beings are more Machine? Or it could mean he will use it on himself.. (or other Sythetics) and God as in maybe how David would see himself once he has been Evolved?

We just cant be sure.. Ridley did say recently that David does get back together but its a big idea, as if he has something Special planned.. the ommision of Shaw could that have something to do with it.... as the source i had said she Technically Does not Die, She seems to not play as big part in the Movie as she would be Incapacitated for the Most Part....   could David had Body Snatched Shaw? Bold Idea... but we just cant be sure.

Covenant is not that Original either not in context of the Plot.... (The source i had said that they had toyed with Prometheus: Paradise Lost and Prometheus: Pandemonium but they was always considering dropping the Prometheus from it and settling on Paradise Lost or even Dark Paradise, but the Title was still work in Progress and they could persue a Title that would go with the underlying theme that is very Connected to Paradise Lost and the Place of Pandemonium).

So we started with Prometheus: Paradise but now we have Alien: Covenant.... but i would like to draw you to another Alien Universe that the Covenant is used...

HALO

Check these two pages out...    wikipedia.org Halo Covenant and Halo Wikia Covenant

You will see a very similar connection to Prometheus... or maybe what we could see.

1) Alien Hegemony of a number of different Races, all United and Serving one Greater Race/Power.

2) Little is known about who these Greater Race/Power is but Halo has it that this Race sees Mankind as the only Race Worthy to take their place.   The other lower Races who serve this Greater Power Rebel and do not see Mankind as Worthy of this and are thus Jelious and Wage a War on Mankind.....  The Greate Race/Power ( Forerunners) came to Power themselves by Rebelion and Overthrowing their own creators (Precursors) killing all but one of them, who they imprisoned.

3) There is something refered to the Flood which is a virulent parasite (bacterial) designed to infect sentient life and consume it (Altered the DNA)....  The Greater Power/Race created a Ark in which they was to collect samples of all life and re-seed them once they had wiped out the Flood by destroying it with a Weapon (Halos) that when activated would wipe out all life within a certain distance including the Flood.  Due to a release of the Flood Parasites the Greater Race/Forerunners where forced to Activate the Halo Array to wipe out and stop the Flood Parasite...  the Forerunners were forced to kill themselves in order to stop the Flood Parasite.

4) The Covenant was Originally a  mutual alliance by Two Alien Races who political, military, and religious affiliation this pact was formed after a conflict between the two warring races and was latter joined by other Races and they had addopted a worship of the Forerunners and their Technology.....

5) After setting out to gain and learn as many secrets of the Forerunners the Covenant had searched the Galaxy for Relics that hopefully would allow them to use the Halo Aray... they then found that the most important Relic was not a Relic but Mankind itself, Mankind was the race that the Forerunners had deemed as the Race to Replace them...... Jelious the Covenant began a genocidal campaign against humanity.  They lost this War due to mainly  an internal conflict. (Rebelion)

So you see we can see many parallels behind the ideas and Plot of Halo who the Covenant are and maybe the role Mankind play... we can see connections to this with what Prometheus was starting to Show and what Ridley had hinted at and indeed Paradise Lost....

So its interesting the name Covenant came up.... if we look at the bigger picture then i guess yes we can see the Halo Universe to a degree could be showing us something that is similar to what was happening with Prometheus Trilogy Prequel.

Update i came across another Race of the Covenant who was actually created by the Forerunners (Greater Race/Power) Huragok

Huragok, or Engineers, are actually an artificial species created by the Forerunners. They will only converse with the Prophets or individuals who learn their language.^[23] This indicates Engineers are very high in the caste system, however ONI believe them to be prisoners or slaves.^[24] The Huragok perform the physical labor of excavating, and gathering data on Forerunner artifacts. In military terms, they are generally a non-militant race. However, at times in the Human-Covenant war they have been placed on the battlefield either as repair workers or suicide bombers.

I guess that sums up our Engineers in Prometheus... we see they are used for Sacrfices, we often wondered are they a cloned race created by some other Race.. and so related to David to a extent? The difference comes with the Non-Militant Race.... as we are led that the LV-223 Engineers are Military or then are they... they was shown to be Engineers, Genetic Engineers who had conducted Genetic Experiments... and we have to say the Space Jockey fits the Bill for a suicide bomber as his mission was just that prehapse?

Whatever that's all about, someone isn't happy.

I think it was incredibly amusing to have the sequel tentatively named ALIEN: PARADISE LOST; along with many other fans of BLADE RUNNER. Although, this new title really does start to grow in you after awhile.

Bonus link:

Sawa