Enoch333: Is it OK for you to put links to where you get your information from? This would make it easier to see if there is some truth to the information since everything that is written isn't correct but at least it seems interesting.

I only post verified infos in this topic... ;)

deadline.com and Hollywood reporter posted this info as usual...

@Brego....

WOW.... yes that surely would fit... we can see last image to depict our Engineers, and others Xenomorphs... i know they are not... but they do look just like they could fit within the whole Alien Engineers Ancient Aliens Concept that Prometheus was pushing.

@Enoch333 will update the information thanks ;)

One more cast member... :)

Billy Crudup

We can now add that the Trilobite and Giant Head Statue will also be appearing in Covenant!

It seems interesting Chris, I wonder what kind of function that they will have? The Trilobite was an interesting part of Prometheus.

Will update the main Topic, but i will cover changes here.

*We now know the movie is set after Prometheus as far as Time-frame of the Covenant mission, due to the Logo Weyland-Yutani the Merger has happened prior to the Covenant Ship leaving for Uncharted Paradise.

This means the Ships Crew Departed we have to assume at least a year or two after Prometheus and a year or two prior to Alien Covenant, we dont know Facts yet and so we can only assume the Merger has happened between 2094-2103  with maybe a 2095-2100 being around a ideal Ball Park.

*The Covenant Ship or a Lander/Shuttle lands on the surface of Paradise, but it is destroyed. How and when is unknown...  Due to a attack by Xeno related Organisms?  By Engineers? Or by a Member of the Crew or David as a Sabotage to Prevent the Crew from leaving Paradise... or something else leaving Paradise?

*Head Statue, we see they are producing another that looks a bit different but who is to say that similar markings ( cuneiform)  will be added later.

Is this Head Statue on LV-223 and so someone visits LV-223 or is it a Flash Back on LV-223 maybe thousands of years ago?

Is the Head Statue found on Paradise, or shown as a Flash Back on Paradise thousands of years ago?  We dont know at this point.

As far as the Trilobite its only a hearsay, there is not comments from Cast or Crew or Photos on Set to suggest  if this is real or not....

What we do know is that Xenomorph style Monsters will appear and (i have heard Fassbender joined shooting weeks latter than rest of the crew and that the Xeno-suit Actors started shooting last week).

so as more information comes out maybe we can find out more....  The Trilobite Scene was supposed to be shown and also reports of Weyland-Yutani Security Shooting at something...

It was all vague and so we cant be sure if there is the Trilobite or similar and if its a event Post Covenant Crew arrive or a Event on LV-223 or a Event thousands of years ago... as at the moment the Trilobite can not be confirmed.

I definitely want a darker tone and look to the set, like Alien. Possibly with a little "dry heat" for comfort.

To the OP, where is A:C going?  Who knows; it seems to have changed a few times!  Ideally, the story is what do Shaw and David find, which is the "Origin of the Engineers" (as opposed to the "Species"- with apologies to Darwin).  But we have this other ship and crew, and the fact that it's going to take several movies to get there (hopefully), as we "backdoor" to the original Alien movie. 

For me, Prometheus (with all it's faults) raised more interesting questions, than the original Alien franchise (which spun way off track, due to many reasons as covered here).  A:C may do the trick yet again, taking us in another direction that eclipses Prometheus (he said hopefully).  Who knows.

As to characters/crew in space.  Isn't it a bit ironic, that in this century, only the best and brightest are selected for space travel, as opposed to the visions presented here, where commercial exploration brings out the "dregs" of society?  The concept of who would "throw away" their life by crewing one of these ships.  Well, historically, the explorers of the past came from all walks of life, some with "nothing to lose" to be sure.  Some drawn by greed, or a lust for high adventure.  Some one step in front of the hangman! So now we just have these swashbucklers, with science degrees.

Personally, I think I would probably go into space, if given the chance.  What is it that you would cling so tightly to on this planet?  You live, you die, end of story.  The chance to get off-world and see things, do things, learn things never before imagined?  You bet.  But as always YMMV. 

As to character development, especially Milburn/Fifield.  First of all, being a former military guy, the concept of someone just saying fuggit, I'm out of here, and returning to the ship, is alien (huh) to my concept of the chain of command.  You don't just let guys quit willy-nilly as they please.  Then their actions once they go rogue are really strange, unless Fifield shares with Milburn and they are both smoked.  But yeah, in general, you are left wondering WTF at the actions of a lot of these characters some times.  Sometimes tight editing leaves out the rationale for their actions I suppose. 

Speaking of character development/where the storyline could go, consider DNA re-combination, as touched on by A:R.  Would it be possible for black goo to combine with human/engineer/whoever DNA and create/re-create life forms?  So many possibilities here.  For example, how about some of Janek's (or Chase, or Revel's) DNA combining with black goo, from the collision/explosion above LV-223 at the end of Prometheus. Or what would black goo do with organic/mineral material, once spilled all over the planet?  Not to mention what would happen if the deacon drank some.  That's a real shit sandwhich for anybody that ignores Shaw's warning and diddy-bops down there.

You would ASSume that's where A:C is going, with David (and Shaw?) bringing a cargo-load of that shit with them; the assumption is it somehow combines with other DNA (whether by accident or purpose), and then cue in new ship and crew.

What's interesting is the black goo seems to circumvent the lifecycle of the original Alien species, being able to combine directly with foreign DNA for results, making eggs, facehuggers, gestation/chest-bursters obsolete.  But all these things are back by popular demand? 

It seems Alien Covenant is set to touch upon the Xeno more than planned Prometheus 2 had... but indeed needing 2 more movies after Alien Covenant to get to Alien does leave a lot of screen time to just purely explain how the Xeno was made and why.. and the Space Jockey what happened to him.

As far as what happens to the Goo when its spilled out and effects organic/mineral material, the Fire and Stone comics may have that Answer.

They worked with Fox and Ridley close... and the Source i had about Prometheus 2 said those comics should not be classed as Canon to the Franchise of movies but what was shown in the Comics is pretty much what would happen under the same circumstances.

And so yes the Goo would evolve and create and effect plant life too, i am not sure about Synthetic Material though..

Apart from Material that is very Alien and Part Organic i.e HR Giger inspired Bio-Mechanics... maybe the Goo can evolve that sort of material?

This is a key issue.  The combination of not only organic DNA but also metallic/mineral substance.  This is the very essence of the original big fella.  My assumption, based on the evidence so far, is that David is going to be a key player in this.

What is the interface or mechanism that allows organic and non-organic material to combine?  This is the original Giger concept, as seen through his artwork.  Is this what the black goo is capable of? Yeah, very good question.

Sci-Fi has explored this before, lifeforms evolving into bio-mechanical form, or maybe even completely "artificial" lifeforms able to "re-produce" themselves.  But this has always been mechanical combination of the two.  What if a lifeform could "re-produce" with both organic and inorganic material already present in it's DNA?  As Milburn might say "...whew"   

I haven't read the comics about what happens when the goo spills at a plant but maybe it gets poisonous and infects those that try to eat it?

Hello Everyone,

I am absolutely fascinated by the Alien series and Prometheus. My favorite part and most of my fascination is with the Space Jockey/Engineer from the first Alien movie. I can still recall when I first saw that part I was like "What in the world is that! Than years later we get Prometheus and that left me even more hungrier for answers. 

Anyhow I absolutely love reading your guys post's here on this topic which has helped me with some of my theories and questions as to WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, and HOW. I also found a webpage that tries to explain just that, named.. Attempting to Explain Prometheus. I agree with a lot of his views, I think it is right on and actually some of what is said they're is said here by a few of you. Check it out you will not be disappointed I promise.

He also looks at the Murals one by one that were in the movie and explains away what he thinks and its pretty darn good.

http://www.ign.com/blogs/conkersbadfurday/2013/01/27/attempting-to-explain-prometheus

Pardon my English..

@Apecheizm

Welcome and thank you for the link to the site. It sounds slightly patronising but it again celebrates  the thought that someone has looked beyond the surface of the movie to find answers and found the pieces of the puzzle but not placed them in the right place within the puzzle, or left the puzzle incomplete. Two examples :-

1) The implication is the Engineers Promethean failure was to give mankind the fire and or that we were an unauthorised Pitri Dish experiment.

2) The Zenomorph co exists separately within the mythos and has its own narrative.    

Answers to One.

Within the mythos, which already stretches in Ridleys mind to Newt/Hicks and Ripley having survived, mankind is alive and "well" and the Engineers are a fallen ancient force whom mankind have happened upon. If the hierarchy considered us an aberration not part of their plan would they not have intervened so there was no story. The hierarchy did "intervene" and the Engineers have suffered a disaster following their fall. We remain the Engineers do not. We are meant to be here in this mythos and earth or not the opening of Prometheus points in only one direction. We are not the interlopers the Zeno strain is. 

Answer to Two 

Everything in Prometheus points to LV223 being a failure. What is the failure a mutagen has caused havoc, a mutagen which is kept in a controlled environment and ritualistically placed in front of an image of ……, now that we cannot be certain of but their God representation which appears in the storm on the top of the Pyramid makes sense, but the room is part laboratory part mausoleum and so the Engineer culture are proud of this mutagen they have created. What does the mutagen produce, Zeno related outcomes, what is the Zeno a weapon created by whom?

Its hard to contrive an argument that doesn't suggest the mutagen with the Zeno strain comes directly from the Engineers ingenuity which has done them no good at all. Some argue it may have been stolen I am with Ridley this is the equivalent of the Ebola myth an unintended consequence of experimenting with G.M.

So if you look at those two arguments I would suggest some pieces in the puzzle need to be reset. ha ha    

The zenomorph ritual is parasitical it needs some thing to feed off to survive that alone should indicate to us it is not first or pre eminent but a contrivance which we know got out. It is not in the train of the Gods it is the result of the Gods servants fall.  

Another very good point, MJ.  Zeno repro is all about the "artificial insemination" as it were.  It is external, mix as you go, asexual reproduction.  More akin to making androids (hence the bio-mechanical aspects) versus something with complete DNA that can gestate on it's own, after sex between two similar beings, and without an invasive cycle into another host.

So yes, evidence points towards zenos as being this aberration that was created by another race, which on the face of it, seems to have gotten away from them. If not actually destroyed them.

Now you can either go the route of trying to explain all this, which is fascinating, and I really enjoy it, or you can be a bit more pragmatic. like Janek, and say, ok, here's what we know.  Let's just deal with that.

I see value in both routes.  The philosopher in me wants to know more about my origins.  The myths and legends used to create more questions than answers here.  The soldier in me says Fuggit, it don't matter; just worry about what you can control.  We may never know our origins; the answers may simply not be out there. 

Now as this pertains to a movie.  Here is where I sometimes have trouble suspending the pragmatic, as in what would I do, versus what is desired/ required to make a movie. 

For example, the number of people involved.  For a horror/sci-fi movie with a creature to chase around and kill the crew, you obviously need to limit the amount of personnel involved so this works.  In reality, as I tried to explain in my thread, you would many more personnel on one of these ships, with the security element alone out-numbering the small amount of crew we are being presented with.  A creature such as this, as terrifying as it is, could be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and/or projectile weapons.  Since that's not what we want to explore (and also too time-consuming and/or expensive) you have to suspend belief here a bit to buy into the story.

Also, as to the origin theory, Ridley is being deliberately vague, as a story-telling device.  Just as in "2001, A Space Odessy", a Ridley favorite, leaving the questions unanswered sometimes makes for a larger statement than trying to give your own answer.

Look at all of us here discussing all this theory amongst ourselves.  We are being stimulated to find answers, where they may be none.  Both from the movie-makers, and in reality. 

@Diz

On the ^^ one of the qualities of on line reaction is to forget the basic principle of storytelling the need to suspend disbelief and apply artistic licence . Naturally if some one doesn't enjoy a story or character it doesn't capture their imagination thats part of the mystery of taste and response but a good deal of criticism in the internet age is about dissembling detail ignoring the reason behind the choice. Just one example and its pertinent to the Jockey thread. Ridley could have gone for a 22 foot CGI Jockey to match the scale of  A L I E N. But the far more important story telling revelation is "they are us we are them" it  would have been much harder to pursue if they were 3 1/2 times the size !

As Ridley has said they are superior, more ancient astronaut, than God and it helps with the layering and intimacy of the story to triangulate mankind/engineer and zenomorph.  

Hi,

I'm a patron of all Alien-related movies. Having seen all "Alien" movies as well as "Predator" movies, I have to say that the origin, the purpose and the evolution of Xenomorph have become convoluted in each movie by each director. The original "Alien" was a big hit, then the second one was better than the first, but the later ones were running out of steam, being remakes of the first two. I like the prequel Prometheus a lot because Ridley has added more mysteries behind the Xenomorph for the continuation of the franchise and story line.
However, his attempt to present the idea of human were engineered by alien species on Earth in the opening scene was just a reiteration of the story line used in the Alien vs Predator franchise. The Xenomorphs were preys engineered for recreational hunting purpose. These creatures can easily be reproduced using any biological hosts. Their unstable DNA structures can easily be assimilated with DNA of another life form. The "Black Goo" is the "soup" for which living cells can undergo rapid mutation in any environment. With this "goo", Ridley has stretched the plausibility of how a tiny worm/larvae can evolve into a giant face-hugger attacking the Engineer. Unfortunately, the plot becomes obscured on how Dr. Shaw's fetus (after having sex with the "black goo" infected Dr.Halloway 10 hours ago) can grow into a giant face-hugger without an incubating host, in an isolated chamber and under a short time. I understand when watching SciFi movies, we need to give and take some. I have to admit that the monster size face-hugger looks impressive in the movie. 

So for the upcoming Alien: Covenant movie, Ridley most likely will borrow the opening scene concept of Alien 3 and combines with the "colonist" idea of Aliens. Since synthetic David knows how to operate the Engineer's cryo-pod, he would have sabotaged Dr. Shaw's pod to breed another fetus with her body inside using the black goo long before crashing on to planet Paradise. Everyone would buy the idea that the aftermath of a cargo ship carrying thousands of xenomorph larvae crash-landed on Paradise would bring total chaos to the planet before the arrival of Covenant. Massive xenomorph mutations would have taken over the entire planet in a short period of time. Similar to Jurassic World, xenomorph species will compete for survival and the ultimate surviving species would be the face-hugger and xenomorph similar to the original Alien movie. By the time Covenant reached the planet, Paradise is already in a ruined state. The encounter between Covenant's crew and synthetic David would bring about new perspectives to the story. A completely flipped out version of David who proclaims himself as the creator of xenomorph on Paradise would do everything to bring back the xenomorph species to Earth. At this point, we can pretty much guess the rest of the story. 

Well, yeah that's one interpretation of it.  David does seem like a very likely candidate for bringing "hell" to "paradise".  Something did happen between him and Shaw.  And there is that possibility that David becomes the SJ that crash-lands on LV426.  This has been mentioned before and does have some merit, although other theories abound.

I don't think Ridley has been that linear in his story-telling.  Prometheus opened up so many possibilities that it's really hard to predict what will happen.

It also appears the story has changed a few times, along with the title.  And, depending on how the final cut is done, you never really know until you see the movie.

Just as in Prometheus, you had Ridley, then Spaights, then Lindelhoff, AND the final editing with input from Fox execs.  So the story gets pushed and pulled from multiple directions.

But yeah, I too am pretty much guessing David will have a central role here, in whatever goes down.  I also suspect he is the source of the bio-mechanical aspects of the xeno.             

@Sciencenotfiction

Whilst the concept of the Engineers as intergalactic gardeners for the hierarchy echoes some of the symbiotic quality of the AVP back story, partly because the Predator does not resonate with me, and partly because of the lack of depth, I do not get the broad sweep or the intellectual/spiritual reach from it in the same way.

On the question of David "bringing hell" I to had considered he is the catalyser for Paradise Lost. However I think it does create some difficulties.

1) Paradise is a seemingly beautiful world which yields terrifying dark secrets rather than being a fully fledged broken planet, like say the planetoid LV426.

2) If the Engineers society was thriving at the time of David's arrival that provides plausibility issues for their non interference on LV223 and if it is in the past LV426.

3) For me the big one is the notion of "Paradise Lost" The Engineers are fallen angels and Paradise  is merely an extension of what has happened on LV223, attempting to break their bond of sacrifice, experimenting with sub creation and rebellion which lead to appalling consequences. We know that some of the motifs of LV223 will re appear Ridley and the Urns as well as some unscheduled indications. This maybe the part of the narrative that has undergone the most revision from Pandemonium to Covenant, Paradise  is not a living hell but a moribund potential hell which will ignite with the arrival of the Covenant which will reveal and lead to us understanding the tools and knowledge that David has gained since getting ahead and through that will explain why "it' was created by whom and for what purpose.  Mind you Uli Latukefu is 6 foot 6 inches tall and was in New Zealand in March at the same time as the shoot so who knows  Engineers may appear real time or the Ultramorph which is not vertically challenged either.