Well this whole thing about Noomi's place (or lack of) in Alien Covenant is pretty murky to me. Noomi's cagey answer and quick exit from the interview does not convince me one way or the other. And Ridley can be misleading in his statements about what is going to happen.As he has done on other occasions. I don't know whar to make of it. 

Reminds me of Luke in The Force Awakens.  Maybe in Covenant, Shaw will be the object of a search, and she is only revealed briefly in the last scene, with hint of a bigger role in the next installment. And then another 4-5 year wait.  

She looks great by the way. It would suit me just fine to see her as  the main focus in Covenant. But sadly we are being told Shaw is sidelined, or done away with, or marginalized to insignificance. And this just to put a distance from the Lindelof screenplay fiasco that the fanboys complained about! And a great actress is now going to waste.   

Well, this is disappointing! Shaw's quest for answers seemed like the only way to go or the only way Scott and a lot of fans wanted to go. I was okay with her taking a minor role and maybe, as Chris thinks, have her story unfold in later sequels. The way the development of this movie is going...I am not getting a good vibe. I may be overreacting because movies don't normally go perfectly anyway. Plus, I am over analyzing every bit of news that comes out haha. Still, I don't know what is going through Scott's mind!

He agreed with or decided, himself, to take a complete 180 degree turn with the story of Alien: Covenant, even after commenting numerous times on how cooked the Alien is (changes of heart are acceptable usually, I just hoped to see new monsters/Covenant be a different movie compared to Alien), and we were informed long ago that Noomi and Michael were already signed on. sp_jockey has a point about her quick comment/non-comment on the movie. Her comments don't convince me one way or the other as well. 

So maybe this is a tactic to kind of throw everyone off and make it surprising that Shaw will be in the story, or maybe they really decided to not go with her storyline 9at least not yet). Hopefully there will be some clarity on this in the coming days or weeks. Haha or even months!

Noooo!!! Great actress! This and the last news feels so strange... I hoped that P2 would be a direct sequel, like Ridley Scott said... but now 10 years later are somehow strange... And the story for Alien:Covenant feels like a huge spoiler... I don't know... Hopefully Ridley Scott suprises us somehow with something awesome. P2 is for me the best film in history...

Well first of all...  after i saw that Interview and i am usually good at reading people, it seems she is not letting onto any secrets but the signs in her face to me sugest she may not be completely out of the Movie.    We have to then consider her reaction and then look at Ridleys Interview Comments again..

He does not ONCE, say she is not in the Movie, all he said is she would not be joining them shooting in Sydney, this does not rule out that she may have already Shot some Scenes, or will be shooting some Scenes at a latter time, she has said she is in a Lot of Prep Work now.....  but for what?

Only other movie she is listed for is Amy Winehouse the movie, which shoots around same time as Alien: Covenant and so maybe Schedules clash? She also is looking for a break having worked on 3 back to back movies since 2nd part of 2015 (Rupture, Unlocked and What Happened to Monday). 

But the Smirk she had sugests she knows more than she is letting on which maybe means one of Two things...

1) She has already Shot some Scenes that would be apearing in Alien: Covenant.

2) She is Scheduled to Shoot some Scenes latter in the year after Alien: Covenant has wrapped up Production.

While there is always the possibility that she will appear in the next movie after Alien: Covenant, but we have to consider a few things.... The synopsis does not include her, but Ridley had said she would play a minor part in the next movie and now its a U-Turn?  But then all he said is she would not be joinging the Cast that they are casting as of now to join shooting in Sydney and New South Wales when shooting begins in April.

So we are left with 4 possible scenarios these are just my Assumption and so not Fact.

A) Shaw will not play a part at all in the next movie, and we shall not see her in other movies (leaving what happened from when she collected Davids Body and Head and set off to find a Engineer Ship, and then departing LV-223 to what happened after this event to teh 10 years later when the Covenant find David on his own, totally uncovered or unanswered)  This in itself is very odd move consider the premise for the sequel was David and Shaw and she would have played a big part in what happens when they discover any remaining Engineers...  Surely they cant go and never explain what happened to Shaw...

Unless its the killer her off like they did with Newt and Hicks in Alien 3 route? This is a waste as we was just starting to witness a interesting dynamic between Shaw and David.

B) Shaw will appear in the next movie maybe Alien: Paradise Lost? well the sequel to Alien: Covenant, if maybe parts of this movie are set before the events of Alien: Covenant.... i mean is David going to find the place of the Engineers and find nothing... just the left overs of a disaster and no answers... so it would be like Prometheus turning up on LV-223 and finding not a single alive Engineer....

But then how does the Space Jockey fit in? And the Engineers being behind the creation of the Xenomorph or Biology at very least how are they going to cover this without showing us any at all.... So maybe the sequel to Alien Covenant would be set in someway (Scenes) before the events of Alien: Covenant and somewhat explain what happened to David and his findings or what he has been upto in the 10 years since Prometheus to Covenant.

C) Same as above, but we shall get some small Scenes of Shaw and David, that would then lead us to cover these in larger detail in the next movie.

D) We shall see some scenes of Shaw in Alien Covenant but these would merely explain why she is to not appear in the Franchise... i.e she is dead or what ever other explanation.

A big thing to remember is Noomis Age she was 31 when she shot Prometheus, she is now 36 and while she can with make up and right lighting look younger than 36 and pass off as being same age as when she shot Prometheus (lets not forget she is shooting Amy Winehouse who was 27 when she died, so Rappace would have been cast to pass off as a 27 year old Winehouse who looked older in her later days due to her problems).

However... the Schedule of the Franchise is as follows... Alien: Covenant 2016 shooting, late 2017 release, then a Alien 5 would no doubt be back on track next... unless Ridley has another change of plan again.... which means if the sequel to Alien: Covenant is to feature Shaw then if this movie is not shot before 5 years time, then Rappace would be 10 years older than she was in Prometheus....  maybe the time difference can explain this but we have to assume the purpose of Cryo Sleep is so you do not age much...

So they could face the same Problem with Alien 5 and Sigourney Weaver, and how it makes sense to shoot Blomkamps Alien 5 next after Covenant rather than wait how long until after Ridley has finished with the Alien Prequels....

Wow, Can't imagine Ridley would let Shaw go.....

She gave birth to a monster facehugger(and survived...doubt many do)... She's the grandmother of the Deacon! There must be more they can do with this character. 

If this is the end for Shaw...We need some serious Fan Fiction to keep her alive!

I believe Noomi Rapace is in 'Alien: Covenant' in some fashion.  As others have stated, Ridley said no to being asked if Rapace would be joining them in Australia.  That's a lot different than saying she is not in the film.  And in the Cirque du Soleil interview with her smirk, then full on smile to laugh while saying "no comment on that yet"... I think something interesting with her character is planned.

This has compromise written all over it. I get the feeling the next film is being made by committee. By dropping the Prometheus title and dropping Shaw, they are distancing themselves from Prometheus in a big way, almost like it never happened. If it had been a big success, they wouldn't be doing this. 

It doesn't mean it can't be a good movie, but I smell a lack of story-telling integrity. I thought Ridley was above such things, but whatever. I cannot be excited about this like I was for Prometheus: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. 

It will probably pander to audiences in a big way, with lots of xenomorph action, as if we can't remember that Ridley insisted for years that that was NOT what he wanted to do. I was once very excited about where this was going, now it looks like it's going to play it super safe, take no chances, give the public more of the same, in a package just different enough to pass for a new movie. No ideas about origins, or god, just lots of action. I suppose a lot of people won't care, as long as they get more of what they've already had. 

Yes she might still be in it I am guessing as well...she was one of the only two good characters but not amazing so im happy with new ones, David on the other hand was very good and having him back will be great.

And yes this does all point to them also feeling Prometheus was not so great lets change it up. Which is great news. I too was burnt by Prometheus which lowers expectation which actually could be a good thing now. I still hope for great things :D .

That is alright she wasn't very interesting anyways but at least she was better than some of the other characters in Prometheus. Maybe she can come back in a later Prometheus movie but in a smaller role. I am interesting about the Daniels character that they claim will be in P2.

To me the best characters in Prometheus were Janek (the captain) and David. The Engineer was also interesting and I would like to know more about them and how they are connected to the Xeno that is why I find them interesting.

BSS1973: Maybe but you need more than Xeno action to make a good movie. We already have Aliens (1986) which to me fits the description of a Xeno-action movie. You need a good plot and also characters that you can care for. The problem in P1 was that the characters were not very well written. If they can avoid that problem in P2 (Alien covenant) then there will be some hope that it will be some how good or at least an improvement from Prometheus. Perhaps we will see some Xeno origins but I am also interested in how the Engineers live.

Stepping back from this post for a few days, and then reading it again has given me some hope. 

The title by Chris Picard stating that Noomi Rapace will not be reprising Shaw in Covenant is misleading. It seems that Chris favours sensational and exaggerated titles to promote discussion or to bait clicks. I'm hoping it's the former. 

Noomi's reaction to the question is actually encouraging. She smiles, laughs and says she has no comments on that YET. And she indicated that she will be preparing for her next movie soon. This to me is actually encouraging. And as other posters have pointed out, Ridley indicates she will not be working with him in Australia. So this leaves open all of the other shooting locations. 

Chris Picard's posted clips do not support the title of his article. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but Noomi seems to be hinting the opposite. She will be in the movie. 

It's hard to read her reaction, either she's trying to put on a smile to hide the fact that she's unhappy about being ecluded from Covenant, or, like you said she's actually aware of what's planned for her character and doesn't want to spoil anything. Either way, her character's journey isn't over. I've got a fresh article on the way explaining why that is.

So Prometheus might be the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers...that's too bad. I was hoping a sequel with Shaw & David might have been really good.

djrees56: I was honestly disappointed with the Shaw character but I would not mind if she has a role there although it would be a smaller one than in Prometheus. Hopefully they will get a more interesting female character in P2.