Alien Origin David's Experiments

So yes i agree as far as story telling we dont need a full on what happened from when David and Shaw get to Paradise to when the Covenant Crew arrive....    Prometheus showed us them leaving in the Juggernaught (its safe to assume it was them) yet it never showed us Shaw and David finding these other Ships or how they managed to get to take one off the Surface with David in Two pieces..... but maybe this was not needed to be shown to know that they managed to get a ship and fly it to Paradise.

Prometheus we never got the Full Sacrificial Scene with Translations.... but the one we got with no Elders still performs the same purpose to tell us the Engineers Sacrificed themselves to create life.

Like we never got a full detailed look to what happened on LV-223 thousands of years ago....

However the clues, from Carbon Dating the Head, to seeing the Dead Bodies the Hologram Engineers running for their lives to the Big Head Room, the Sterile environment of the Big Head Room that prevented the Urns from activating prior to the Humans with no Helmets entering and how the infection within the Space Jockey Head had ceased.... and was preseved... with the effects of the Black Goo,  Shaws Ebola comments and Janeks WMD Facility comments...

All provide clues for us to get answers....

We just need similar for the next movie in a less ambiguous way than to actually be shown every detail of what happened on Paradise both post Davids arrival and prior (Ancient Past).

I think this is kind of the point you was making?

And its totally logical.... it seemed originally it may have been more deeper, but its been toned down now... like how the Xeno connections from Spaights draft was changed for Lindeloffs... 

They now seem to want to cover the Xeno Questions and DNA in more depth, and we could arrive at the After Math of previous events.  And so maybe little would be told of those events but enough so we can paint the picture..

I do wander if the backing into Alien comment means latter movies can explore these Post Alien Covenant events?

As we have the Merger already, no details perhaps why and how,  if we are also not going to cover to deep anything regarding what befell LV-223 and Paradise from when these places was in their prime..

That leaves 2 more movies after Alien Covenant to Alien with a 18 year timeline and surely thats too short a time line and to much screen time to feature Xenomorphs over and over.

"David becoming/evolving into a bio/mechanical being was what I was kind of alluding to."

Its possible... i had covered it a number of times years ago and as i put in this thread its where the Prometheus Trailers was taking me as far as David... but then latter Trailers (quick shot of Davids Head) proved this theory wrong....

Its something Fire and Stone picked upon as far as Evolving a Synthetic but Elden was not a 100% Synthetic like David.

The Synopsis is very open to interpretations and the comments by Ridley Scott, that we can make our own theories which is all part of the fun of debating.

I am however drawn to the "Synthetic David" in the Synopsis and the two roles Fassbender will play and curious for the big idea for how David is in One Piece

But Ridley can be very ambiguous with comments and could lead us astray.... acting like a Magician with distraction?

The Synthetic comment had lead me before to these and they are what Deep Space you and Michelle seem to be touching upon...

What can be meant by Synthetic David?  is it just to inform us of the Synopsis that they find the Android David on Paradise the survivor of Prometheus?

Or is there something to the Synthetic?  which brings us to maybe 2 possible answers.

1) Is it a clue to tease that the second role of Fassbender the Doppelganger is different?  A common mistake people think when they look at Doppelganger is like a Twin... If you had a Twin unknown to you would they be a Doppelganger or if you was cloned?

But it is to show us someone similar (usually in appearance)  who are not however connected.  I would think but i could be wrong that if we had David 8 and another David on Covenant say David 9 would they use the term Doppelganger? or that he is playing TWO Roles?  Why not say Fassbender returns to play David and another Android.... but then these comments could mean the same thing.... that he is playing Two Davids....  as we do see a brown haired on with the Covenant crew.

But then what if the Synthetic was a clue.. so David 8 is Synthetic and it alludes to the other role being non-Synthetic or different.. i wandered if it would have been a Human who David was created in the image of until the Covenant Badge had Weyland-Yutani which is thus a post Prometheus mission so this would not add up... unless earlier David models had a different likeness... i even thought this would have made a cool encounter for David to meet a Human counterpart... David would be Jealous a little as his Doppelganger would have a Soul.... but then this Human Counterpart would be Mortal after all... and not have potential for near immortality that David 8 has.. i felt this would be a interesting Dynamic... but again with the Covenant Ship being a Weyland-Yutani mission i abandoned this idea.

2) The other only idea i had which is what you not long ago touched upon Deep Space is that the Synthetic in the Synopsis is to allude us to that David 8 is supposed to be Synthetic.... however when the Covenant Crew arrive he is no longer and has some what Evolved and Transcended himself.  But off course not in the way to make him totally different like Elden from Fire and Stone.

As far as the Light Speeds etc.... what i was trying to do there was prior to the Alien Covenant Badge which showed us a Weyland Yutani mission.

Was that the distances was important as far as to the when the Juggernaught David was on, departed (assume 1st January 2094) and when it arrived which is some date post 2094 but prior to about 2104...

And then also the same goes with the Covenant, we dont know where Paradise is or how far as they have not officially mentioned it... The Source gave me a destination but we cant take that as being Fact... his destination was about 600 Parsecs but they think it could been 600LY or so...  Thats some over 15X or up to 50X further than LV-223 from Earth.. but we cant take the Source as being correct.

So my comment has no relevance really it does not matter, all i was using it for was to establish (even though we may never be told) how long the Covenants journey was and what year it had left for Paradise.

My thinking is this...

No way a Engineer Juggernaught could leave LV-223 and arrive at Paradise and take nearly 10 years..... not if a Earth ship was heading to the same place.. unless the Earth ship departed many many years prior and arrived by coincidence.

The Covenant Badge shows us a Weyland-Yutani ships and so within the context of the movie the 10 years that have passed has to have seen a Weyland Merger of sorts and then the ship leaving.... but we have no idea of if this Merger happened in the year 2095, 2098, or 2101 or any dates between...

But its not important really...

So my whole point was mainly trying to figure out if David 8 had been on Paradise prior as i doubt the Covenant would be just behind him... i would assume David had been on Paradise for sometime....  how long depends how long it takes him to get there from LV-223 and so only reason i brought up Speeds of Travel is that if David had only been there for say 5 years.. then what was he doing in those 5 years as if it takes him 5 years how can the Weyland company merger and send out a Earth Mission within 10 years..

I would thus assume David had been on Paradise for like 7-9 years i would assume... 

And back to the debate, i think its a case of how much or little of what has David been upto prior to the Covenants Arrival and Post leaving LV-223 that we would find out about.

I doubt we would cover loads, as you hint to Michelle it would be a distraction to cover the A-Z from leaving LV-223 to the Covenant arriving.... it would distract from the main story of the Covenant crew and their fate in being caught up in the Nightmares that await on Paradise for them.... and show us the Xenomorph connections and Origins somewhat.

And so just as with the what happened between when Shaw collected Davids body and head and made the Warning Message to when we see the Juggernaught leave LV-223 what happened to every bit of action regarding finding the Ship, and getting David to be able to Fly it...

Simply put, did it really matter?

And so if we arrive at the Aftermath of David being on Paradise, we dont need to have much time devoted to it, just as we never got a complete in time frame showing of the Outbreak that killed the Engineers off.... we never saw this happen, we never saw the events of that event.... only clues left via the Aftermath and Prometheus Crews findings, encounters and theories regarding what went down.. and the Hologram Scenes...

The Evolving Creature is a definitely known Plot Device.

We have to ask in what way does this imply..... i think it would be interesting to see David play a role in this but who knows as Ridley said the Engineers Created it.... but then Ridley in the same interview asked why would they create such Evil Biology and we will discover why they did, when Ridley mentioned the Biology another time it was in context to the Bio-Weapons on LV-223.

What is this Evolving Creature and the event of it and will be discover the making or this creature.... or just the discovery of it... which we have to ponder.

1) Is this something related to what the Engineers Created in the past that was discovered by David 8 after he arrives on Paradise?

2) is it something as above but its discovered by the Covenant and maybe David is not aware it was there.. (this seems unlikely).

3) Was it something Evolving from some aftermath after David had arrived on Paradise and so was nothing that was on Paradise prior to Davids Arrival and if so does this Evolving Creature have something to do with the Role that

a) Engineers or related beings was involved in after David 8 arrives on Paradise.

b) Shaw is involved with in some way and if so is this prior to their arrival or has part of this evolution of this creature been started before David had arrived on Paradise. or  a event involves Shaw after they arrived?

I am draw to one of those 3 events being the most likely explanation.... which ever one it is.... i think David plays a role in how it eventually interact with the Covenant Crew, so even if David does not discover it already there... and he does not experiment with it... he has to be deeply involved in how this Evolving Creature goes from being there to then unleashing Horrors on to the Covenant Crew

I hope the Doppelganger isn't like Bishop in Alien 3, the human bishop.  Something cheesy like Weylands hidden son....

I certainly hope not too....

I do think that we are going to see in effect Fassbender in Two Roles... one being David 8 from Prometheus and the 2nd some look a like on the Covenant..

I think its a bit of a coincidence if the other role is a Human look-a-like...  who just happens to look similar.

I did wander did all the David Models look the same from David 1 who was created in the year 2025, and did Weyland continue to use the same likeness all the way through?

If so who was this based off? a Real Person who maybe worked as part of the team?  Surely not a real Son of Peter Weyland... But how would this Human look-a-like who David models had been created in the likeness off had been around prior to 2025 and then in 2104+ and look a similar age...

Once we knew the Covenant was Weyland-Yutani it was safe to assume the Mission had not left Earth until at least some point past 2094..... so it cant be a look-a-like who David models had been based off.

David 7 had came out in 2068 with the David 8 Model mainly available from 2073 (Pre-Ordering late 2072)  So the David models had Evolved over time, always improvements.

However after 2073 it appears no more models, and Prometheus had set off in the year 2093 with a David 8 on board and so this model had been in service for 20 years.

With Model 7 being 4 years before replacement with newer model, Model 6 having 6 year+ Shelf-life, Model 5 with 10 years, likewise with David 4 ... David 3 at 7 years prior with David 2 likewise 7 years and  3 years after the First David.

so thats a long time to keep David 8 model which means they must have Perfected the Design by then.

Weyland called David the closest thing to a Son... but David 8 was not the first... he may have been Weylands Favored David 8 model but Weylands First Son was David 1

But Weyland meant that the David Androids was created as a Son to himself...

So it would be interesting to see what the other Fassbender is.... distant relative of a Scientist who Weyland had based Davids looks? 

or maybe a David 9.. less Synthetic Model..

Either way i think David would be amused at the discovery of a Doppelganger and could be Jealous a bit if its a distant relative of the Human who David got his likeness...

Or if its a Advanced less Synthetic David model again it may make David feel a bit insecure maybe this Doppelganger could look down on David.... But ultimately pay the price.

I am still betting on a David 9 Synthetic Construct model similar to Elden from Fire and Stone.

@BD - I do like the way you run through the possibilities!

Here's a very simple idea:  David discovers tech that can help make him bio-mechanical either at, or en route to, Paradise.

He arrives a good few years before the Covenant crew and discovers Xeno type being (or beings?).  He then experiments (perhaps using Shaw here in some way) and kind of reverses the experiment on himself with this Xeno.

et Viola . . . you have your bio-mechanical Xeno.  Plus lots of the 'natives' all ready and waiting for the loved up crew! ;)

That's most probably far too simple, I know; but whilst I don't want to be spoon fed, I am realistic in thinking that if the links are too vague, and we stray into too much 'Engineer politics', it would most likely negatively affect the films reaction en masse.  

As MJ has often highlighted, the effects on Shaw's reproductive system after the 'insemination' could remain, and David could be aware of this.  Perhaps he utilises this to his advantage in creating/developing the Xeno life cycle on Paradise? Even if it reverts back to a 'barren' state, he has, in Shaw, a being with the potential to create life in a way that a male could not!

 It does make we wonder also if she is perhaps the 'missing link' as it were, and perhaps the one who is 'making' the eggs? (possible tie in to Queen here as well, maybe?)

Which also begs the question - will David find eggs or create them?  Or a bit of both . . .  We do know that we will see the full cycle from Egg to Big Boy so they are making an appearance in some form - I can't help thinking of the Giger image of female looking creatures attached to some sort of birthing(?) or who knows what machine

If, as I suspect,  Shaw has had to use the Engineer tech to make the trip alive, then some part of that may be irreversible.   e.g. the suits the Engineers in Prom wore looked almost bonded into the skin. Perhaps it's also through Shaw that David gets his breakthrough?

Ha, so much for simplicity!  

Whether Ridley chooses to reveal these details or not is questionable but I do hope we get some clues (and think we will).

What is really bugging me though is whether the Crew simply arrive and find these monsters or whether they are in some way part of their development?  Could be a little bit of both . . .

The wrapped up Daniels clip suggest some medi-pod or scan to me, although it could just be coming out of hyper sleep.

I will add that my one bug bear with the synopsis is that it doesn't appear to be covering the why they made and then wanted to destroy us - something that after watching Prometheus I was eager to delve a little deeper into.  However, maybe what we see in AC will at the very least give us some clues or answers in an indirect manner.

Also how much WY really know about the Xeno and the android 'situation' are also things I'd like touched on - but perhaps best leave those to another thread :) 

@DeepSpace 

Before the Covenant arrives :-

1) We have a disaster on Paradise. We know there is strong connective tissue with Prometheus which in all likely hood includes the mutagenised goo and an evolving creature the Deacon being the forerunner.

2) We have a technically alive Shaw. I believe it is Shaw that is head wrapped with a slopping shouldered David in his utilitarian outfit looking on the reflection. He has designs on her "womanhood'

3) We have a big idea David who has access to on board Juggernaut technology including a fused bio skeletal suit.

When the Covenant arrive ecstatic at the finding of their dream we see three elements :-

1) The idealists on a colonising mission.

2) Some stiff W-Y sub military types including Daneils.

3) Some robots pre ash post David 8.

The crescendo of the first act is finding the "synthetic" David.

In the second act the character of the crew begins to emerge as Daniels begins to chip away for the truth. Stuff will happen which will ratchet up the fear but towards the end of this act we will begin receiving answers to whom David now is, what the fall was about and this place is no Paradise. Something awful will happen at the end of the second act and deep .... begins.

3rd act is the terror act where everything that is going to be revealed in this movie is made clear. We may see David and Shaw  in the prologue and now come to understand what we saw means.

Ridley will riff ALIEN we think its all over but its not. The connection with Ripley will be made and someone has a career in finding out answers to the questions set in this movie. We will know W-Y is still interested in the Engineers broader technology and Daniels wants her answers. Does David go through a redemption arc as his humanity grows. If there are more prequels expect slightly more survivors otherwise you have to rebuild again and if Ridley has got it all clear there will be more natural continuity with A L I E N : ........      

David is a mechanical being involved in a big idea and Shaw is a reproducing member of mankind who is technically alive if these things do not play into the re (creation) evolution of the life cycle I will eat my helmet. How is the beautiful part of this and in less than 300 days we get to find out. Yo ! 

I do believe passionately that this film will have the flow and momentum of the Martian and the colouring in of the mythos will be direct rather than elliptical and some of it will be through exposition and some of it will be made obvious by the horror we witness. So if we see "Shaw" connected to a birthing machine we will know precisely where the Face Huggers come from whereas David will offer those wonderful one liners to explain what the Engineers fall was about. "It would seem the forbidden fruit caused all their troubles"...."Rebellion has a price" and of course big things are still emerging from small beginnings.

And that, MJ, is why I go on this forum :)  Excellent stuff!

I'm not sure that's Shaw all wrapped up though - could be - but the lips look very similar to Waterston's to me.  Not that it detracts for the overall gist of your post one way or the other, really :) . . . Also, I just don't see any reflection - again, I don't doubt it's there, I just can't see it - annoyingly!  

Indeed . . . the How is the beauty of this and I can't wait!

@DS

One of the curious things about even the most casual make up is you can make a woman lips extremely variable. A particularly good example is Cate Blanchett. The mouth she is given in say Carol as opposed to the Tolkien films is radically different. What strikes me with Katherine is she has a very rounded face which is very notable in the face book picture with other other actors including Michael and Uli Latukefu and her Covenant "Bob" emphasises this more rounded face which is quite different from Noomi's angular face.   

The reflection is the body element which is wearing David's Prometheus utilitarian shirt with the scruffy collar and is not quite lined up with the head.   

 Hmm, interesting example MJ!  I have zero knowledge of make up so will keep an open mind here . . . either way it's an intriguing image.  If it is Shaw, with David onlooking, then it definitely gives us a big clue as to what is going on.

I will look again to see if I can spot this reflection . . .

Question:  Yourself, and other posters here, have been referring to Daniels as more 'military type' than colonist per se.  Why is that?  Is this based on info. released about her character or on the images/peaks we've seen?  I've probably missed something here, and it would make sense, but just thought I'd best ask - thanks :) 

Darn it one time i dont copy my post incase, and i get timed out.

Here is a Nut-Shell version... i had studied before that Cryo-Sleep Image in great detail, even using a photo editing program to scale and then super impose over the top photos at same angle of Waterston and Rapace... and at close look ven though  they are similar in a way... i always felt it was Waterston.. but after using a Photo Editor and looking at % Ratio of Features i am pretty much 95% Certain its Waterston and if its not then i feel its unlikely to be Rapace.

Shaw was not in the Synopsis too, and Daniels is touted as a main Character and she appears the most in the official images we have seen so far.  And so i think this adds up to it being Katherine Waterston...

As far as what the Scene is, well who knows it could be a Cryo-Sleep Pod it could be a Medical Pod... hell it even has that Happy Birthday awaken from Production look to it.. but i doubt she would be a Robot...

What a Twist if it was though... we are being led to her being maybe the Ripley Link..... then Ridley pulls the Synthetic construct (like Elden) on us and she is the reason for the Xenomorphs Bio-Mechanical look...   We would not see that coming...

But to have TWO non-Human Leads would not be likely.

Its certainly interesting to discus what we could potentially be seeing and each of us make our own view that differ, its all part of the fun.... its very open and vague from what clues we have... but i think there are from the Synopsis, Ridleys Comments, the shots we have seen and onset production and other casts comments then we can paint a broad picture... i will highlight these points maybe latter but i think i had covered them before.

But as far as how these are expanded and in detail what they mean is where its any one guess really..... i dont think they are showing us all this stuff to give  a lot away and i would not be surprised if they are misleading us with some stuff.

They are not lying... they are just showing snippets that can seem to lead us to a more spoon fed conclusion... when actually its not that simple.

I will first tackle the Daniels Military comment...

We cant be 100% sure at the moment,  all we know is the Mission is a Colony Ship mission to find and then colonize a New World and we have couples.

I think after Prometheus failed to draw us into the Characters, they are going to make sure they can change this for this movie.  If we look at the Martian it was so well done that a Plain Jane or John Actor (Matt Damon) who is not really someone who in his career has had many deep roles.... well in Martian i at least got the sense of worry for his plight at every pitfall that occurred... this is how well his characters was written and then portrayed on screen it was a good job by Matt and also Ridley....  even though you knew he would survive, at every obstacle the movie made us feel his plight... Ridley pulled this off with Alien too and sadly Prometheus did not deliver the same sense of care for the Characters.

So i think Ridley has to work out how can we connect with the Characters and Especially Daniels... Its seems that they did try and change Shaw's Character to becoming more closer to Ripley (she had to change and harden up because of traumatic experience) But Ripley it took the events of TWO movies to turn her into that Bass Ass....   with Shaw it never worked as it was from innocent scientific believer in God and After-life to signs of becoming that more Tough Female Role, after her C-Section it seemed a bit rushed... 

The deleted Scenes showed Shaw in a more changed way, like when she got Davids Head and she was manhandling him and called him a "F-king Robot"  But the version we got was as if Shaw had all forgiven David for everything he had done and came across as not being to badly effected as if all she been through was someone had split wine on her 2nd favorite dress.

So i think yes they are trying to Mold Daniels in a similar way to Ripley and we have to WATCH for Ridleys comments as he could be giving us a Red Herring and the Ripley Connection is just like how Daniels is to become the similar Character.... it would be like if we did not know David was a robot and then we found out latter after he had his head ripped off and Ridley after the movie had been out for a while said this is the Ash connection.

So we have to look at Daniels and ask... if they are trying to go the route of a Ripley Character are they going to have it where we see the Character Evolve...  like they did try with Short in Height Religious Scientist Shaw....  or do they have a more Hardened Roots to build up from like how Ripley was a Warrant Officer and so someone who had a bit of a tough attitude.

Or do we get the All-Ready Packaged Military kind of figure... so are they giving us more of a Vasquez?   when we see that one shot of her in the ships corridors the look and outfit.. fits the Vasquez mold more than Ripley

But its how do we get drawn into her to care about her, are we going to care more for a Military Toughie and especially if she is in on the Act so to speak....  but has a change of heart when she realizes the true extent of the objective? Would this be a bit of say a Burke in Aliens having a change of mind?  We already had the Tough Character who shows a softer side latter with Vickers.

We as of yet dont know how the Covenant finds Paradise but surely its not by Coincidence?  But we again have to ask if its a Mission where they have some idea of whats ahead why take a Colonists Ship there....  but then the same could be asked for why send the Nostomo in Aliens and maybe the answer is similar and maybe the Covenant just happens to be off some other place and then gets information that a more suitable place has been found to go to... this could explain maybe why they could send a Colony Ship because there is one already not far away... well closer to Paradise than others... this assumes the company gain a little information but not massive amount.

But we really dont know the whole Plot and Reasons for how the Covenant ends up at Paradise.

But if i carry on to this Topic in this post which is Daniels Character then yes at some point she becomes that Tough Female lead like a Ripley... but its how far  does the Character have to Evolve to this ROLE?

Is She prior to arriving at Paradise.

1) High Ranking Officer type like Ellen Ripley was in Alien

2) Is she some kind of Scientific/Medical Role. (important to the ship but not in chain of command).

3) Is she some kind of Security/Military Personnel (Vazquez)

4) Some kind of Corporate figure (Vickers).

5) Or is she just a Colonist with a Partner trying to make a new life but hostile encounters force her to change.

We have to ask which role and evolution would draw us into her Character more?

Onto your comment Deep Space

Indeed as its been discussed a bit on this post a few times, i think the potential to see at least some Evolution of some Character to Evolve/Transcend is highly possible.

a lot of the little clues could nudge towards seeing a Synthetic or a more Advanced kind of Synthetic being changed into something new...

Its a case of does this happen prior to the Covenant arriving or after?  If its David 8 thats Evolved we have to assume he wont be to far changed.. not like Elden as i feel it should cause for concern and caution with the Covenant Crew...  But saying that seeing him in a Engineer Under Pressure Suit like the one the Last Engineer wore prior to getting into the Pilot Chair... i feel this would not make the Covenant crew too suspicious.

I would assume someone gets evolved in this way, and it could be a Synthetic well non-human.....

But again we cant rule out what happens to Shaw, again i would think she is key to the Plot, but it does not appear she would play a massive role as far as screen time.. but we can still expect maybe she plays a big role in the Plot Device..

Could she be connected to  some kind of Experiment?

who knows... we have to remember Rapace is cast and so Shaw has 100% left LV-223 on that Juggernaught we just dont know what state she is in by the time David arrives at Paradise, or at very least after they arrive at Paradise but prior to before the Covenant arrives.

David is alone...  or so it would appear, and something is Evolving on Paradise something surely related to the Xenomorph or that plays a role in the chain of events that lead to it or something similar.

And so we have to ask where is Shaw then? it does seem that she could have fell foul to what ever plans David has for her and surely would he want to follow Shaws objective or has David got his own Agenda?

But we dont really know... Ridley teases a few things... but we cant be 100% sure..

But its safe to assume that one or more of these fit into the Evolving Creature or the Outbreak of Xenomorph related Monsters.

*Shaw

*David's Doppelganger

*David 8

However i think David 8 is the one pulling the strings behind all this and one or maybe both of those above will unfortunately be the Guinea Pig for what ever Horrors David creates.

"I will add that my one bug bear with the synopsis is that it doesn't appear to be covering the why they made and then wanted to destroy us"

This should only really be a Bug to those who have not seen Prometheus those who had and especially those who took interest in it would know this was one of those burning Questions left from the first movie that sets up the whole supposed purpose of a sequel.

This is not included in the Synopsis because the Synopsis wont give us to much away... Prometheus did not give away much as far as finding out these Engineers had created Experiments meant for us that ended up getting out of control and killing them all (but maybe one) on that World that the Prometheus was heading to.

As Michelle covered the points i will cover these too, there is something we know from Ridleys comments and sets we have seen, and then we have ways we can interpret theses and fill in the gaps.... i knew someone who had spoken to someone who had some SUPPOSED information about Prometheus 2 Sequel as of Fall 2014 there information does give us a bit of insight into what could be going on in spite of maybe a Re-write that John Logan had done to the Final Draft... so we dont know how much is changed from Logans re-write to the Green Re-writes which the Source claimed their information was about... this assumes the Source is even Correct.

But i will only cover what we really know so far officially (include comments by Cast and Production).  And so as Michelle said.

1) The Covenant are arriving at what they would think is a uninhabited Earth Like World... but what they find eventually is a dark and dangerous world that has been the scene of a Disaster* (post Alien Covenant comment*)

Which to expand on what Michelle said, indeed prior to Alien Covenant Ridley confirmed David and Shaw would be off to the Engineers Homeworld and David is bringing Hell with him... they have taken a Juggernaught and its safe to assume this ship also has a Deadly Cargo.

We have a shot of a scene of some kind of Disaster/Punishment that seems to be taking place on a World related to the Engineers if not Paradise and upon beings who could be Engineers or related...  Its safe to assume these were once the inhabitants of Paradise....  but we dont know when this Scene had occuried..    

*Post David 8 and his Hell with him Cargo

*Prior to David 8 and some Ancient Event that explains a bit about the Downfall and Destruction of Engineer Society/Civilisation

There is a set photo of Ridley Scott in some kind of Catacomb or similar with Shelves that have Black Goo Urns.. but are these from David's Juggernaught or have they been there for a long time?

2) We know Shaw had asked David to take her to the Engineers Homeworld and not back to Earth as she wants answers, and without her help David we can assume is going no where, and without David's help Shaw is going no where... David offers Shaw a chance to go and seek her Answers.... But once David is put back together well Shaw is at every whim and mercy of David... she has no choice and David is very Persuasive.

Originally indeed they had arrived at the Engineers Homeworld and found some beings who where not Benevolent... David however was bringing Hell with him...  Ridley had thus informed us they was going to find some beings who are not nice.. which does not bold well for Shaw or David (look at what the Engineer did on LV-223 to a few of the crew) but Davids Hell Cargo could be the Ace in the Pocket... a Bargaining Chip?  Who knows.

Alien Covenant we are now arriving 10 years latter, a World where No One is home apart from David 8, no Shaw, no Engineers only something Evolving related to what the  Engineers had created... (created as in actually created, or as in David created via Tools at his disposal the Engineers had created).

So its still safe to assume as Rapace is cast that she will play some role.... but is it a Flash Back?  as the scene of disaster looks likely to not be set in the same time frame of after the Covenant arrives.. and so we could be seeing a lot of Aftermath.

Shaw must have made it to Paradise or at least she was on the Ship that David was flying to Paradise... but she is on where to be found... but will play a small part.... 

Did she get her answers? or has David used her to gain his answers?

3) David has managed to Navigate and Fly the Juggernaught,  Ridley had said Shaw does put him back together or helps him to be back in one piece...  Shaw is no Engineer and surely cant fix him up as good as new... and Ridleys comments hint at bigger things for David more than merely a Quick Fix Head stuck back on job..

How long does it take to Paradise, would Shaw be able to survive the journey by just hanging around the Juggernaught, its likely she has to fix David in some way and then end up in Cryo-Sleep.

The Engineer fused to the Chair in order to fly the ship, its safe to assume the Engineers Pressure Suits Holes are not for Ventilation or Show and maybe function as the old 80's Cartoon Characters from the Show Centurions 

If you watch this show, you will see the Engineers suits are like HR Giger versions of there suits... they can connect to various Technology.... so this is maybe how they fuse with the Space Jockey suits and Chair.

Is the Engineers suit therefore needed?  can the ship be flown by a David in his Weyland Industries Space Suit?   We can assume not...

Ridley has a big idea for how we find David back Whole again... its ambiguous but certainly is interesting....   We can at least assume that during the Journey David would not be sleeping... in Prometheus he was taking on board information and exploring the Ship and i would assume he would have done the same on the Juggernaught.

I do however feel we would arrive after the fact and so not to expect seeing David marvel in all the Engineer Tech and knowledge he would be getting his hands on.

To expand on the other points Michelle made..

1) The movie seems to setting up for us first following the Colony Ship Covenant as it arrives at Paradise, its safe to assume we would see some scenes of them awakening from Cryo-Sleep and then some scenes where we can get acquainted to some of the Characters.

But for the most part the crew would be made of Colonist Couples who believe that they are arriving a un-populated Earth Like World to start a fresh new life.  They really would not be expecting what they are in store for... or maybe prepared.

2) The ships is a Colony ship, but then are we going to see the same kind of non-security prepped ship like the Nostromo? surely we are not going to see a Military Mission like the Sulaco but surely there would be some degree of Security in place like Prometheus had.

The ship has a Pilot, and we have a cast who are primarily couples but that does not mean we wont have a few more added cast who are not so credited like Prometheus had the Mechanics and Mercenary Protection.

The mission is a Weyland-Yutani funded mission and it would be interesting to see how much they know (the company) before sending Covenant to its destination... this would no doubt have a impact on any Corporate Personnel or the level of Security the ship may have.

3) Indeed its been company policy a lot to have a Synthetic on-board.... apart from the Nostomo but then Ash was added covertly but this was in part the company policy (unknown to the crew they was Synthetic).

So its very likely and well a certain that the ship has a Synthetic and maybe this is where David 8's Doppelganger comes in, as Fassbender is playing TWO Roles and one is David 8 but we have seen on set a Brown Haired Fassbender and i doubt Shaw has decided David needs a change of hair color after she puts him back together.

The interesting thing here is....

*do the Covenant Crew know they have a Synthetic? or is it a undercover job like Ash?  I would imagine once they find David 8 and notice he looks like a member of their crew they would start to come to conclusions (assuming they never seen a David model before).

*Is the Synthetic on the Covenant really a Synthetic? are they a more advanced, less Synthetic model like the Synthetic Construct in Fire and Stone Comics Elden?

The Synopsis does indicate David 8 is Synthetic which we should already know, and he said Fassbender also plays a Doppelganger and so why not say another David? and then there is that Big Idea....

Points to the Doppelganger  is either not quite Synthetic.... or that the Doppelganger or David 8 get upgraded/evolved into something less Synthetic.

If we try and look more to the OT Questions of what role does David play in Alien Covenant and what about Shaw then we can look at these points.

Previously a Prometheus Sequel was set up to follow David and Shaw who have left LV-223 on a Engineer Juggernaught off to the Homeworld (where the Last Engineer said they came from) Shaw has a lot of Questions she wanted to ask these Engineers IF/WHEN they find them...  These Questions would revolve around.

*Why was we created?

*Why did they visit us and leave clues to LV-223 and then abandon us?

*What was they doing on LV-223 and why did they wish to use what ever they was doing to destroy Mankind?

The original movie plan seemed to indeed show us that Shaw and David arrive at some world related to the Engineers but it is not no Paradise but more like Hell and they do find some beings who are not benevolent. They (Fox/Ridley) also had planned to make a sequel that would go off on a different Tangent to Alien and it would explore the Agenda behind these Engineers and why they created life and then would create such horrific experiments that would in effect destroy the life they had created... it would touch upon the Agenda behind the Engineers, a insight into what they was thinking when they created us to when they created those experiments on LV-223 to destroy us.....  it appeared they wanted to step away from  the Xenomorph as far as showing us more deeper clues to it or go and show us more Xeno DNA and Monsters more closer to the Original rather than the mildly connected Organisms we saw in Prometheus.

If Shaw had hoped to get answers she may not get quite the answers she wanted as these beings related to the Engineers are not benevolent towards us.  But David was bringing Hell and what would happen if the Black Goo infected a God or Machine.  So Ridleys plans for Prometheus 2 seemed to be going the route to show us.

*Shaw and David do indeed get to Paradise

*Shaw would have had to put David back together

*They find beings on Paradise who are not Benevolent

*Paradise is more like Hell, and those beings more like the Devil

*The Engineers are more like Fallen Angels

*We would not be getting a movie that would follow directly to the events of Alien and we may not be getting Xenomorphs but a movie that would cover the purpose and Agenda of the Engineers and those above.

*We would however find out why we was created, and why the Horrific Experiments on LV-223 was created for.. so mild links to the Xenomorph but perhaps a better explanation for the purpose of LV-223 and why Earth was a Target.

How this would have ended? is anyone's Guess, but it would appear that David is a Key Character again and would no doubt survive the Movie and we would get a 3rd one.  And it would appear we would find out more about the Engineers Agenda, and while these beings are Dangerous there must have been something David has in his favor to make sure he survived,  we would get more insight into WHY both Mankind was created and the Black Goo Bio-Weapon thats related to the Xenomorph.

For David to survive we have to wander what would Force these Hostile non-benevolent beings to not be able to Destroy David... does David unleash Hell on them... or in some way he can make a Covenant?

==============

The Source had given information upon the sequel at a time when Ridley had said No more Gods and Dragons and the movie would further step totally away from Alien.... but the Source claimed the movie was very much Gods and a bit of Dragons.  But we cant say for sure if the Source was in anyway correct.

===============

So now we have Alien Covenant....  and from the Synopsis we have a missing Shaw, and no Engineers....

We arrive at a time 10 years after Prometheus where a Weyland-Yutani Colony Ship (USCSS Covenant) is arriving at the same place that David and Shaw had set off to 10 years prior, in what this Crew believe would be a un-inhabited Paradise....  But they find that the world is a Dark and Dangerous World and the only sole survivor is David 8

But there is something Evolving on Paradise, a Evolving Creature that they (Engineers) created, or at least their Evil Biology had created.

The Covenant crew would for the most part not be aware of what they would discover and so no doubt finding David would be a surprise and our David can be manipulative and persuasive and so it would be interesting to see How and What he does to explain why he was there.....

He surely would not be telling the whole truth..

Fassbender said David was a fun Character to play and he was Creepy which means he has some alternative non benevolent motive hidden behind a persuasive Character.

David is not alone, there is the Evolving Creature and at some point the Covenant Crew would come across and be introduced to this creature and we would see the aftermath as the Crew being killed off one by one.

We are to see multiple Chest Busters and so this evolving creature that is discovered must have means to Procreate unless the Evolving Creature could mean more than one...

David would no doubt be the Main Character again, Ridley has invested in Fassbender having Two Roles and also a Big Idea for his Character.  

We have to logically ask how come David is alone? Is he aware of this Evolving Creature and what part has he played in its Evolution...   Ridley has hinted that the Black Goo plays a connection to the Xenomorph, and in this movie we would find out HOW and WHY the Xenomorph would have come to be and WHY it was Bio-Mechanical.

If they created it (Engineers) what % of the final and eventual Xenomorph are they responsible for and what % is David?  For Ridley to hint that we find out why the Xenomorph was Bio-Mechanical must mean that the events in Prometheus both from the Past (LV-223 outbreak) and the Deaths to the Prometheus Crew at the hands of the Black Goo did not have a Bio-Mechanical DNA to it yet.

But somehow a event in Alien Covenant would show us this, is this a event from the past... prior to David's arrival?  or post David's arrival but prior to the Covenant turning up?  Or a event after the Covenant arrives?

We cant be sure, but regardless of this Evolving Creature being something David played a role in or not..... we can be sure the way the Covenant Crew are drawn in and then affected by the interaction with this Evolving Creature is something that David definitely plays a part in.

Its logical to assume David has a idea of this Evolving Creature, the movie would show us how the Xenomorph could eventually be Bio-Mechanical compared to what the Black Goo showed us.

David had brought the Black Goo with him, there is a scene where we would see the Urns but are they from a past, or is the scene we have seen a shot off (Ridley Scott in front of Shelves with Urns) something related to David bringing them to that place?

We cant be sure, but we can safely assume that what ever this Evolving Creature is... it has not finished Evolving yet to become anything close to the Xenomorph but we would be shown it evolving towards this and you can bet that David plays the main part in this..

We will however see Shaw, but in a smaller role.... we can only assume what this is.....  but we are left in the AFTERMATH of what ever David and Shaw found on Paradise when they arrived as we can assume well before the Covenant... and ask how come Shaw is not with David when the Covenant turn up?

And what about those Engineers?

Why is the movie called Covenant and who made such a Agreement could this explain the where abouts of Shaw and the Engineers?

And so yes while we dont know what role any Engineers play, regardless of if David and Shaw found any or just ruined civilization that had seen Disaster, David will at the very least get the answers that Shaw wanted...

David could well have his own Agenda.... and what ever wishes Shaw had would take the back seat to what ever plans David has... why would Shaw be in hiding?  If they never found any Engineers how would Shaw feel and get her answers...? If there was Engineers how would this turn out for Shaw....

What ever had happened to the Engineers and Shaw, i think we can assume David had a massive part in this...   If there was no Engineers then David would have a idea of what happened and no doubt find out and maybe give Shaw her answers.... but at what cost?

So yes in some way David is pivotal to the Plot... regarding seeing a Evolution  from the Black Goo to what ever Horrors befell the Crew of the Covenant.

@BD & DS

I have absolutely no idea how Covenant flows from Prometheus and how the Covenant narrative works. However what I offer is based on two things "Whats the point" and "what will not work" 

This is a movie about the Covenant which comes into a pre existing story of a two part David and Michael playing two roles and Shaw playing a small role. They come to a planet which is not what they think it is and their is an evolving creature and post disaster society. These are facts so how do you use them baring in mind Michael has confirmed what I indicated the moment I came to this forum this is going to be a pacey movie with a strong narrative set inside some big ideas where the director and final screen writer are happy to use the Xenomorph.    

Good Drama and the franchises related motif's would suggest :-

1) The Covenant has two agendas. Why I think Daniels is military and not a couple is the way she look she survives and she is holding a damn great weapon in her revealed shot. I think she and D C know the truth. 

2) They come to place where David knows they are coming he has baited them (has to make sense and its quick connectively, think of all the options they are either lame, complicated or a plot hole).

3) Shaw is in for continuity technically alive she ain't interacting with the Covenant crew think of other movies where stars play cameos after about 8 days of work. Probably two scenes at the most where she starts and where she finishes. How can you use her in an interesting way and make her victim this seems a slam dunk to me she is part of the Xeno trigger story.

Going back to David 8 he looks like David 8 (prometheus continuity but he is transformed and that will play into D8 verses DC) these two roles need to be antagonists for a tent pole).

The strange woman I have a still of the head, I am more convinced  than ever the body is out of alignment with the head particularly on the right hand side and if you look at images of Noomi there is a Prom one where her mouth is identical to the still.  But hay ho lets wait and see.   

Another Key Element is the First Image of the New Xenomorph

Ridley has said as well as finding out why the Engineers created such Evil Biology and what was they thinking.... we would not only come across a Evolving Creature that the Engineers created but at some point we would find out why the Xenomorph was Bio-Mechanical.

Well the image of the Hand above is Tagged where it all begins.. meaning they could imply this shows us where something Evolves to become the Xenomorph.

This hand is not like the Xenomorphs, it is not Bio-Mechanical its digits are not the same, or the hand itself.

The Source claimed that (February 2015) so a long time before any information came out, that the planned Prometheus 2 would have not ONE but TWO Monsters.... both would be different from each other but we could trace connection in both to the 1979 Xenomorph.

One Monster is from a previous event and not at the hands of David but the other is from a event at the hands of David.  They claimed the one Monster was very related to the HR Giger Necronom IV and the Ultramorph concept from Spaights Alien Engineers, below i will show his TWO Ultramorph Concepts.

Note the Hand in this looks much more like the Alien Covenant Hand, at first i thought the Alien Covenant hand had 5 digits but it seems the Thumb is split into a double digit.... This Ultramorph has 5 digits but it has a 6th coming from its arm..

Here is the other Ultramorph and this one has 6 digits and apart from how these digits are laid out...  these hands look more like the Alien Covenant Hand than the 1979 Xenomorphs.

These Ultramorphs do have a Bio-Mechanical look but its not as Mechanical as the 1979 Alien.

Not to long ago, we had various images of the Alien Covenant Clapper Board which had the image of the HR Giger Necronom IV on it of which the Ultramorph was based.

Does this mean something similar could be connected?

The Source claimed the other Monster was supposed to be based off the Original Design but a more Fresher take on it.... whats interesting is the Original Design was the Necronom IV Ridley got Giger to design something that combined his Neconom 4 and Necronom 3 ideas into a New Monster....  before HR Giger had arrived at the final designs that the 1979 Alien was based off he had designed Two Other Creatures.

For the Source to claim TWO Monsters who are different and One is based off the Necronom 4 and they are both different to each other and yet similar to the Xenomorph in Alien... to me rules out the other one being based off Neconom 4/Ultramorph and also not looking like the Final Xenomorph....

This was a hint that the Two Monsters are different to the 1979 Alien, and there is also some differences between Monster One and Monster Two and they are from Two different events which David plays a role in the latter.

While i can never say the Source is correct.... things do add up...

If there is a Evolving Creature....  but the movie shows us how the Xenomorph becomes Bio-Mechanical....  and looking at the "where it all begins" Hand.. thats clearly not Bio-Mechanical.

It could be safe to assume this is the Evolving Creature that the Engineers Created.... but maybe some event at the hands of David leads to us seeing something that Evolves to show us how the Xenomorph becomes Bio-Mechanical.

This means TWO Monsters surely?

Alien Covenant is not directly going to link to Alien, we have Two more movies to do that and we have to ask if the Final Xenomorph is revealed in this movie, can they really pull off Two more movies with this seen to death Monster before we get Alien? especially with a Alien 5 on the Horizon?

So could Alien Covenant potentially show us a less Bio-Mechanical Creature that plays a role in to becoming Bio-Mechanical with David playing a role in this... and could this Bio-Mechanical Creature actually not be 100% the Xenomorph but a middle stage to get to this point?

Thus...

Evolving Creature ==> Davids Experiment ==>Bio-Mechanical Creature ==> Evolves to the Xenomorph?

Certainly fit in with the proposed 3 movies to Alien... and also matches what the Source Claimed.

Exactly Michelle...

The point i was trying to make was regardless of where they was going with this movie, they have no changed the plans a bit...  Spaights Alien Engineers had evolved to Paradise by Lindeloff, there had been changes but the broad stroke themes are similar... just the Xenomorphs took a back seat for a alternative way to connect the dots and the emphasis was to build upon and explore the Engineers and set up a plot that lent more to exploring them instead of a straight prequel to Alien.

It appears again a change has happened where they now wish to back seat the Engineers and explore the Xenomorph.

So we are now arriving at a Aftermath movie, essentially Alien Covenant is a Sequel to what ever in some parts the Prometheus 2 movie would have been.... where they can concentrate on what connects the Xenomorph more.

Shaw and David had been intended to meet some beings on Paradise... Now we arrive at the after math where only David and a Evolving Creature are found.

But we see what appears to be Engineers in a Scene of Disaster its a case of is this a Visual to a Narrative David tells us and we need a Flash Back to visualize what he tells?  Or is this a scene of some aftermath after David unleashed Hell on them?

All we can be certain of its its not a Scene related to when the Covenant Arrives... surely not?

And so we also have Shaw missing to, we have to ask would she be revealed at the end to continue the Plot for a sequel or in the time frame of the movie Franchise.... has Shaw met her untimely end and simply is not alive by the time or Covenant or certainly after.

So yes its very logical to assume Shaw has played some role in what ever Big Idea and Agenda David has....  People would be wandering what happens to Shaw.... if she is a Plot Device to something we meet in Alien Covenant..

If we are arriving in the aftermath of when David and Shaw arrived on Paradise with no explanation to what happened to Shaw, this would not sit well with those who saw Prometheus and wander why the hell we dont see her or know what happened.

I think Fox knows after Prometheus that fans want a more Spoon Fed Approach and so having a few scenes that would show or give clues to what became of Shaw Post leaving LV-223 to the arrival of the Covenant seems the wise move.

We certainly are heading into the Aftermath of when David had arrived on Paradise... we cant be sure what was waiting there for David and Shaw.... (even though they was supposed to meet beings, this may change now). 

But we will certainly find out clues as to what David had been up to on Paradise and why we dont see Shaw much in the movie and maybe also why it appears only David is there and the evolving creature that he must be fully aware of.

We dont know yet about the Covenant Crew and roles, we know for sure its mainly Couples and i did a bit of match making and was left with 4 left over.... 3 Males and Daniels and so its which one is Daniels with.... if any... we know we have a Pilot...  but its hard to figure what Roles that Billy Crudrup and Demián Bichir although they have more experience than the other cast members and so must play a more key role...

They could both play that Corporate Slimeball like Burke or indeed a Android... they could also play the Captain Role too.

But its as you say Michelle surely they are not going to find the same place David 8 had arrived at by Coincidence?

They can not also have too much information, i.e had been to LV-223 determined what went down and that David had gone to Paradise with the directions to follow... as surely they would send a Military Mission?

But surely the Covenant or someone on board has to be aware of something.... or is it a case of  this ship happened to be off on a mission to find a World to Colonize... and then just happened to discover a signal from David....

I dont by this as the Synopsis seems to indicate that the Covenant Crew was not expecting no body home.... but this does not mean that someone on the ship has some knowledge the others do not...

So yes thats a really really interesting Point in regards to how the Covenant actually end up finding this place...

@BD

The temple scene is important for the simple reason you do not build an outside set for something which is mere texture rather like the headroom in Prometheus that was an expensive set and meant something central to the core narrative. For me its one of those eat my helmet things if it isn't a scene depicting disaster on Paradise. 

It maybe a daytime/night time scene where members of the Covenant come upon it by night. But its discovery and whats in the temple ruins is going to set off "what happened here". This is when we should begun to understand the nature of the Engineers Fall and in regard to whom.

N IV would fit in with the evolving creature.Deacon through to Xeno but whilst we know two monsters belongs to the pre Logan rewrite there is nothing to say some of those ideas have not  survived. Indeed many of the philosophical ideas driving the story may have remained intact, it is just its presentation that has changed. Probably the biggest philosophical change is from a live fallen world that D & S come into, to a dead fallen world that David is active on when the Covenant arrives. This latter approach sets up the concept of relativism, if Paradise and its superior species have suffered retribution, from whom, as Ridley says the next layer.   

Exactly Michelle...

I have covered the Temple in replies to this Topic Temple Scene

We have to look at a few key points as far as the Franchise. That Ridley Scott has made etc.... not taking into account the supposed information from the earlier Prometheus 2 (2014) drafts.

*The sequel to Prometheus was to go to the place the Engineers came from, and further detail more about them and their purpose and Agenda.

*The Engineers on LV-223 may not have been top of the Hierarchy and maybe the outposts Evil Biological Experiments where conducted in a place far from them Homeworld.

*They are going for a loose connection to themes explored in Paradise Lost by poet John Milton.  Which tells of a Rebellion between God and his highest ranking Angel Lucifer which resulted in a War between God/Lucifer and rival factions of Angels who some had sided with Lucifer.  A tale of Rebellion of Creator who has great freedom of knowledge.   The tale expands to creation of Mankind and Mankinds fall at the hands of being tricked to gain Forbidden knowledge by Satan (Lucifer) and a future insight in to future suffering and pain for Mankind for there Fall and Future rebellious ways against God and various Punishments laid upon them by God.

*David and latter the Covenant arrive at the world the Engineers had came from, and they find its a Scene of Disaster, there appears to be no Engineers or their Hierarchy left at the time the Covenant arrives.  There is a Evolving Creature and David as the sole occupants of Paradise by the year 2104.

*The Temple Scene is of a Disaster, a Punishment the result of a War, who knows but it shows the suffering and destruction of beings who look related to the Engineers to some degree.  Set on a World that has the same Writings on the Architecture and Ruins as the Engineers did in there Temple/Complex on LV-223

So its safe to assume this scene is a flash back scene, a scene that in some way depicts one of THREE Things..

1) Beings who are on Paradise at the time David arrives, maybe he unleashes Hell on them.... but this would not give us insight into how the Franchise and Paradise Lost Poem's Fall of the Fallen Angels and Mankind and Punishment.

2) Some beings related to Fallen Angels, or a previous incarnation of Mankind (before we was evolved more) being Punished by God for their Rebellion against Gods rule.

3) A Hierarchy of beings above the Engineers being punished by the Fallen Engineers. The result of some Ancient War.

I think the Black Goo/Xenomorph has to be connected in some way as some kind of Punishment or Biological Weapon or a Biological Weapon made from the result of Punishment.

And so yes Michelle i think this Scene is of great importance, but i think instead of where they was going with Prometheus 2 and maybe more interaction and deep on screen scenes showing the Engineers and their Hierarchy and Agenda... we are now going to a movie that shows us the AFTERMATH

Prometheus covered and showed us that something disastrous had occurred on LV-223 something relating to a Outbreak of the Evil Biological Experiments and Warfare on LV-223...

We was never shown the purpose of the Outpost or exactly what happened in real time down there... just like we are led to the Space Jockey having his Cargo get loose infect him and he crash lands on LV-426 and sets off a Warning.... before gets Chest Busted... we have never been shown the Space Jockey leave where ever he was with his Cargo, or how he got infected, or the exact moment he got Chest Busted and what ever led to the hole in the floor that leads to the Egg Chamber..

We had a set of clues that showed us... Prometheus did this in various ways with the LV-223 Outbreak....  we did not see in real time what had happened to cause the Outbreak, all we had was a set of clues from the remains of the bodies, the experiments effects as far as interaction with the same Biological Weapon. 

It was the Hologram Scenes and Narrative by crew members of Prometheus who's dialog showed they had theories to what happened... which told us the viewers maybe what may have happened.

I think THIS is what we are seeing here in that Temples Scene...  so yes Michelle eventually the Covenant crew may come across some ruins and ask what happened here?  Maybe David knows a bit and can start to inform them....

And then we go off to a Flash Back Scene like the Sacrificial one, that is to explain visually what had happened...

I dont think we would be going to deep however, not like maybe how the Original Drafts had seemed to be going... as in that it appeared David and Shaw would encounter at least a few remaining beings related to the Engineers and maybe they informed David what happened...

We cant be sure if David and Shaw however found any Engineers or related beings prior to the Covenant arriving.... we are now arriving at the Aftermath of what ever state Paradise and Shaw was in after David had arrived..

We cant rule out in context of where we are going now, if they have changed the Plot so David and Shaw arrive at a totally dead world... with no Answers for Shaw.

As far as the TWO monsters, the Technically not Dead Shaw, and many other themes... these all came from what the Source had claimed... among a lot of other information.  Which a lot never added up quite...  to what Ridley had said at the time.... (No more Gods and Dragons.... a movie that would go away from Alien and in a different direction).

But as time went on, things added up, Ridleys comments added up and so who knows...

Regardless of if the Source information is correct or not, we have seen Prometheus 2 go through a lot of changes before they had a Final Draft.... but it was all quiet... Ridley was busy with a few movies (Gods and Kings and The Martian) and we have Blomkamps Alien 5 concept....

Then we out of no where got that the Prometheus sequel was getting a green light and was to be Alien: Paradise Lost... which then weeks latter changed to Alien: Covenant and we had a Synopsis that seemed to be very different to the direction that Ridleys previous comments had pointed to.

John Logan had been brought in to work on the Paglen/Green Draft and change it to what we now have (Alien Covenant) but just as with Spaights Alien Engineers to Lindeloffs Paradise... while there are changes... there is a lot of connecting points and back bone story.

And so indeed i doubt Alien Covenant has been a complete re-write of the Final Paglen/Green Draft that had a long time spent on it....  it took a while maybe as touching upon the whole Engineers as God/Creator of Mankind and connections to then want to destroy us and Biblical and Greek Mythos connections was  very BOLD plot and one thats hard to do Justice..

I was working on a Prometheus 2 draft and those elements was a major sticking point so i abandoned it.... as it was getting complicated and would taken too much into those Mythos than actually the Xenomorph... which was merely a Agent of Destruction that was one idea i was going for but there was like 2-3 other ways like coming across something related to the Xeno and seeing the results and adapt it into their Technology..

It was complex....

I think Green and Paglen must have ran into the same problems...  and so Logan may have been brought in to simplify the whole Plot so it can fit more in with a Narrative that flows easy and connects the Xenomorph more.

But i would still think the underlying themes of the previous Drafts would be carried over... maybe just toned down a lot, and maybe touched upon more in future movies... but for now its about getting to the bottom of the Xenomorph... sooner rather than latter.

A thing to remember for most people is Ridleys Scotts comments are nearly always very misleading at times and can have multiple meanings... potential Red-Herrings not as far as lies but his comments are set in ways that seem to lead to a conclusion only to actually be something else....  We need to be careful of jumping to conclusions...

A few such points i will make now.

*"It’s going to be it’s own separate thing because they are going to the planet of the Engineers and they are going to see what happened there. It was a disaster. And they will be in that alien craft that takes them there, but with a new group that’s incoming, a new group of travelers in the beginning of the first act"

This could lead people to think that David and Shaw are in contact with this new group of Travelers, we see David and Shaw leave at the end of Prometheus LV-223 and so can assume the next movie started with them going to Paradise but with another group of travelers and a number of Websites ran with this as though indeed they are being joined by these Travelers.

The Synopsis however, cleared this up because we had no Shaw, and the Covenant crew arrive at what they thought would be a uninhabited world only to find David alone... the Synopsis points to me that they was not expecting David well most of them.

The Costume Designer added the movie was set 10 years latter, and so David had been there for a number of years we can assume..

But my point is looking at Ridleys first comments it seemed to hint at the Covenant arriving behind and in part along with David and Shaw.

And so when Ridley makes comments about “They’re going to go to the planet where the engineers came from and come across the evolving creature that they had made. Why did they make it?"

Imply that the Engineers created this Evolving Creature that is on Paradise, but in other related interviews he said we would find out the Thinking behind the Engineers and why would they create such Evil Biology... and brought up the Black Goo.

So the THEY created it could mean the Evil Biology that plays a role in the Creation of the Xenomorph.

So i think Ridleys Comments are great as he leaves a bit of ambiguity to what he says which is always a great topic for debate....  like his comments on the Big Idea for how David who was in Two Parts will be back on a Whole New Way.

By Whole he means Once Piece... which we can assume is when Shaw puts him back together but its not as simple as stitching his head back on...

We have to remember... Fassbender will play David 8 and a Doppelganger and so Ridleys comments could put us off the sent... and he could mean a Whole New David.... meaning the other Role he is playing is a Big Thing... which could hint that the Doppelganger is different to David... and could play a key role..

Which is why i am drawn to the other Doppelganger David to be more like Elden a Synthetic Construct and this is where they may hint the Xenomorph Bio-Mechanical Look comes from.

Certainly interesting and i cant wait for more Comments by Ridley and more Shots, and even the Trailers to start so it gives us more to debate and also see if our previous debates hold up in light of new Evidence..

Also i like every new piece of evidence as a lot of it seems to keep adding up to the Sources comments...

@BD

Whilst I am certain that the retribution on the Engineers is in the past I am imaging the Covenant crew seeing what we are seeing a Pompeii like scene where Divine retribution has been meted out on them for their fall.

For a society of seeding gardeners to have a fall means they began to sub create and experiment. We have seen that on LV223 and the hierarchy have in all probability intervened either directly or by bobby tramping their experiments with the mutagen. Its a little like those who believe many of our virus's are the result of out of the plan behaviour. One recurrent theme is sub creation through A I. If the creature is Bio mechanoid they have fused mechanical and biological elements. This maybe David's big idea it is an extension of the fusing of the Jockey with the Juggernaut. If David 8 is a fusion and David Covenant turns up he D8 may have uncovered away of fusing the mechanical with the biological but with the mutagen included. David Covenant maybe one of the ingredients of the Xenomorph we discover on LV426. If David 8 is part man and part machine he may be able to dope the male Covenanters which leads not to a Trilobite but a face hugger. I think that is unlikely I wonder if the big idea is a sharing an exchange between David and Elizabeth with Elizabeth generating the first eggs. Equally as Aorta has said she could morph but if Elizabeth is going to generate an Egg Colony repetitive birthing makes sense. We come back to the same thing David + Shaw + Mutagenised Goo gives us all the start up. 

The wickedness perpetuated by the Engineers involves species cleansing and why a bio mechanoid ritual was created will become clear in Covenant. Does David create this particular variant or re ignite it who knows the better drama is the former. 

Absolutely it makes sense that in order to tell the tale of the fall of the Engineers or at least what caused the Scene of Disaster the Covenant Crew arrive at... that the Covenant Crew or some of them should end up coming across the remains of some kind of Disaster.

This is off course assuming Ridleys Paradise Lost comments and connection is valid to this movie which it most likely is, because the name change a few weeks prior to Alien Covenant was Alien Paradise Lost and so some themes from John Miltons Poem must carry over.

And as we are arriving at the start of the movie or 1st Act, at a time 10 years post David leaving LV-223, we are at least at the start going to be covering the arrival of the Covenant Crew who first come across David (well after a while at least).

We know there is this scene of disaster that was shot, and its not going to be the start of the movie like the Sacrificial Scene in Prometheus and so the logical way to bring this about would be as a Flash Back Scene after some of the Crew come across the ruins of what was once some Ancient Society....

What do the Covenant crew know about this, i would assume for the most of them Nothing.... they was after all expecting a uninhabited World so the Synopsis points to.

So they will be surprised to see David, and then if we assume they come across some ruins related to that Scene they would have Questions.. and then a Flash Back could be used to show us what the Disaster was...

This would be like if Prometheus we never had the Sacrificial Scene at the beginning... this Scene was cut... and then reinserted after the DNA Match Scene when they tested the Head.... Thus then showing the Sacrificial Scene would help to establish Shaws Findings.. with that DNA Match... This was how one Fan Made Cut of Prometheus was done.

But some fans had also compared the Alien Covenant Scene to Pompeii as far as Petrified Remains..  I however dont think how we have seen this scene in those photos.. is going to be how the Covenant Crew discover the Disaster, i dont think they would come across the remains of the Engineers (or who ever) in a Stone like State like the Still images look like... but who knows.

We cant rule it out as they do have a stone like look to them, they are covered in what looks like Dried Mud as if they have had a Turkish Mud Bath... but there is another shot of beings fighting and they look a lighter color and some of the poses look like they would be difficult if these beings had somehow become frozen in time...

the Black Goo is implied in the Franchise, and maybe the dried Mud look could be as a result of the Goo being poured on them and CGI can add to this scene... But thats not to say if this is the case and its a Black Goo being dropped on them.

I hope its a action set piece, but only time will tell... i think one thing that would go against a stone like preserved scene of disaster like Pompeii would be that surely they would have the crew walk around this set and walk past maybe where these beings had died....

Looking at the other shots which show Large Trees... tells me they are going for a grand scale and perhaps these beings are to be shown as being taller than depicted in Prometheus?  Who knows.

Punishment for Rebellion is a common theme we have seen between Greek Mythos and Biblical Events and we dont have to see these shown as exactly the same kinds of Punishment as the Bible and Greek Mythos have shown... we are not going for a literal re-telling of these exact events.

Paradise Lost only tells us about the Punishment of Fallen Angels without going into massive details..... but it does foretell a prophecy to Adam about the many Punishments God will lay down on Mankind...

Sodom and Gomorrah being one such event, and to me this scene of Disaster does look like a re-telling of this event.

The release of the set photos of this scene of disaster does add up to what the Source had claimed.... which among many things was that the Biblical Events such as Flood and other Punishments had actually happened in context of the Franchise, but just not in the same time frame and way depicted as in the Bible...   They also said Mankind was the 4th/5th Generation of Mankind and to look at us Evolving from the Engineers as the missing link rather than from Ape to Mankind as shown in the theory of evolution of species by Charles Darwin.... these comments were a little odd to figure a bit... as they was vague..

But after seeing these scenes of disaster it has got me thinking about what if the Biblical accounts of Punishment by God in the past on Mankind, was actually based  as far as in context to the movie Franchise... not events on Mankind as per Bible... but events upon previous incarnations of Mankind and maybe these beings in that disaster are a evolutionary ancestors to Mankind?

Ridley did propose after Prometheus came out in context to the sometimes one must destroy in order to create... he did mention about on Earth that previous inhabitants had been on gone in the past.. and he brought up Atlantis and that Civilization and the way his comments are structured could hint that this Civilization had to be destroyed to make way for Modern Mankind.

This certainly is a interesting scene (set of the disaster) as prior to these shots i was concerned Ridley had abandoned everything about the Engineers and we was going for a soft-reboot sequel to Prometheus to give us a more Alien movie.. where our Engineers are gone and dont matter as all that matters is David  + Black Goo ==> Xenomorphs.

But  this scene has given me hope that they would be covering the Engineers at least in some light, and Paradise Lost...

Its interesting to be given clues to what kind of conflict had occurred as we was told the Engineers did not come from LV-223 but the location that we would call Paradise.  We have to ask what caused these Engineers to make such Horrific Experiments they could not control on LV-223, was it merely a outbreak by accident like Janek made the analogy with the Science Outpost he had to Nuke because some Fool Spilled something.

Or was there some element of sabotage involved? We certainly have to wander why the Last Engineer Survived... and the Original Scenes with him painted a different picture to the aggressive and peed off Engineer we got... the concept work even had this Engineers Cryo-Pod Labeled as Hero-Chamber....

But we have to remember that what ever background and Agenda they had then could have been re-designed as they wanted to portray them in a different light...

It certainly however would be interesting to find some answers to LV-223, especially as Prometheus was trying to show us that LV-223 and the Xenomorph was connected.. if this was not the place they created it... they certainly used it to experiment and created something that was either from the Xenomorph... or that would eventually lead to it.

Ridley said that the aim of the next movie is to show us why they would create such a Bio-Mechanical Beast and it was a Weapon and we would be shown why.

The Bio-Mechanical part is very interesting too, because i think we can over look that there is some connection between the Xenomorph and the Derelict ship they both appeared Bio-Mechanical....  yet in Prometheus the Ships appeared more Mechanical and the Monsters more Organic.

so its interesting to see where they are going to go with this...

The source seems to hint at LV-426 and the Space Jockey event being something very old... and connected to LV-223 very connected they said... and they claimed that Prometheus 2 was going to not show us how the Xenomorph was CREATED... but how it can be RE-CREATED....  

Ridley i think did say after Alien Covenant announcement they are going to show us why the Engineers created the xenomorph... and we will see the Xenomorph re-introduced in this movie....  He also said there is a evolution to the this movie and another movie would evolve from this one... and a 3rd movie would then get to why the Space Jockey had that Alien inside him.

Well the Fresco and Mural in Prometheus seemed to hint that the Xenomorph or similar was known to them... and it showed a Xeno Egg.... and its a case of something similar was known to the Engineers thousands of years ago... or those Mural/Frescos are a Prophecy..

While Logan has changed the draft... i am not sure he has changed it dramatically, but there are people now who seem to think that what happens in context to Alien Covenants timeline of 2104 eventually ends up being the Derelict on LV-426 some 18 years latter.

I hope this is not the case.... its certainly not the case with Ridleys comments right up until Alien Covenant and appears to not be the case with the sources comments.

As far as with Shaw, i think this has to be a big part of the Plot, she is a massive Plot Device if you ask me... while she may not play a big role she would certainly have a big impact on the Plot..

The Sacrificial Engineer was not in the movie long.. but his prologue scene set up a lot of the movies Plot.

At a time when there was no news on Prometheus 2, the source had gave some information.. at a time when Ridley was still on about eventually we would get a sequel but it would not be about the cooked beast and Gods..... but would follow Shaw and David.

The source had claimed David and Shaws role was only 1 of 3 Plots and the other Two Plots where bigger, they hinted Shaw would not play a large role but she would not be dead.. technically not anyway... they said David plays a important role in the movie..

All of a sudden some 6-7 months after we have the Synopsis and there is No Shaw.... and then she was confirmed to not be in the movie... so many assumed... when she was just confirmed to not be joining the cast to shoot any scenes.... but latter she did.

just after Alien Covenant was announced the source gave some more insight, before anything was released only just the Synopsis and few comments but no  details  related to what the source had further explained....   which was they said in context of Paradise Lost and the movie (i assume they meant Prometheus 2 as they said they dont know what Alien Covenant was about so no knowledge of Logans changes).  they said within context to Paradise Lost there would be no Xenomorphs without Sin... which i assume was meant as Satans Daughter who is found at the Gates of Hell and constantly Pregnant giving birth to the Hounds of Hell.

Then it brings me back to what was said February 2015 regarding concept ideas about some Humanoid attached to some HR Giger Machine in Cruciform pose they said it was similar to the Deacon Mural but also reminded them of a HR Gigers take on the Superman 3 Robot Girl Scene.

Ridley did say regarding David and his Hell he is bringing with him, what happens if Back Goo infects a God or Machine... so maybe there is a connection?

So indeed i think when we look at what Prometheus 2 was setting up to show, and the Source said Shaw would find out the answers she wants but they would reveal a very sinister Agenda and Purpose that would totally go against what Shaw would be expected... as far as our creation and purpose..

And so who knows.... i am being drawn to the Engineers or Humans or both having some sinister purpose..  and the Sources comments about The Matrix actually being more connected theme wise than Paradise Lost or the Greek Mythos is very interesting...

We know Mankind was being used for a sinister purpose that mankind (kept in the Matrix) was unaware of...

Was Mankind used for another purpose?  did a group of Engineers take us to another place to free us from this and then raise us to serve them and was this against the will of the Hierarchy and why they was punished?   Was this sinister Agenda the Engineers role, but they sub-created us to take there place?

Who knows... i think the scope for the plot is huge and i hope they dont give up on it all, and we get some clues.. that can be evolved upon latter... once the Fanboys get the Spoon Fed Xeno answers start with this movie and maybe end in the next.

@BD

On the technical question of the "scoop" of the scene of disaster. What we are looking at is set preparation in to which two elements will be added.

1) The actors who will move amongst the set and be filmed.

2) Lasers will cut up the scene dimensionally so the actors and any extras know what they are really looking at. So the temple will appear in the final cut whereas whats above and to its sides will be added and Ridley will giving scene direction to actors and extras as to what they are actually seeing.

So I believe with the enormous amount of detail in the sculpting on set they are not serving as a group of maquettes for moving CGI characters but they are part of the actual set.

It is possible this scene (In real time when it actually occurs) will be the prologue with full CGI movement of the Engineers running to the temple but I suspect David acting as narrator will indicate what he thinks happened and through dialogue they will interpret the scene. To actually show the Engineers running as CGI takes away the mystery of these fossilised remains. That is not Ridley's style.

The prologue incidentally will be one of three possibilities :-

1) The coming together of W & Y and the receipt of a message by Y shared with W.

2) The moment of retribution acting rather like the moment of sacrifice. 

3) The set up of the David and Shaw changes.

I go with No 3 at the moment. 

Source

I have found your remarks about the source fascinating the only bit that baffles me is they can not give you any hard answers on what Prometheus means and yet the film was made 4 years ago. The plot is no longer an industrial secret and all they offer is the clues are there if you want them. I am comfortable with Prometheus and the phase here has made me work through what  we definitely do know, and in addition if we invest effort we can also make our own assumptions based on Lindelof's Law but surely your source knows what the Fresco, Mural and the holograms actually mean.

I have found my answers that are certain from the commentaries :-

1) The mutagen the Ebola break out which destroyed the airfields population and one Engineer "got lucky". He was on a mission with three other pilots to destroy so they could create anew. Why because you can. Shaw's view is she needs more answers she will get them in Covenant and the answer is the destruction of mankind would have been one of the consequences of a fall. One of the other consequences of the fall is to find the Engineers (a species wedded to sacrificial rituals for creation) has experimented with adding other elements into the catalyser including ones that lead to a mechanical outcome and the danger there is the machines take over (The Matrix riff).

2) The fresco - sacrifice - the egg barely visible even after multiple viewings of the actually movie is in my view a prophetic Easter Egg for the most challenging fan.

3) The mural - tomb. My speculation being the Deacon was sacrificed to produce the mutagenised Goo with his head piece fused into the alter but this was essentially provided as an artistic riff to Giger. The only complete unknown is what happened to the suited up Engineers who made it into the headroom. They maybe attempted a second take off/ turned out to be the Space Jockey/it actually doesn't matter it was merely setting up what comes latter Space Jockey = Engineer which shares our DNA. 

4) The headroom "Another set that I worked on was known as the "Head Room." This was a ceremonial room that contained hundreds of ampules beneath a giant sculpture of an Engineer's head". Straight from the artist.

So I am curious Big Dave why can you source not give definitive answers on a film made four years ago. 

You raise some very valid points, trying to piece together the puzzle is something not quite so easy, i think having different contradicting comments and so many changes from Production of Prometheus to Shooting (Production began based off Spaights work and Lindeloff started to re-write the draft while concept work had been done and production under way) this dont help with the clear picture of whats going on, did they ever had a Solid A-Z plot of whats been going on?  Or is it a kind of make it up as they go along?

I have studied the movie in depth, and i have tried to make things fit but the sets of clues i could be using could have unintentionally been clues... such as trying to tie in the Fresco to the Prometheus Mythos and i noticed the Fresco was similar to one painting of Prometheus and his Punishment....  and taking into account Spaights draft and then the Mural.

So indeed if some of the clues i am using are not even meant to be clues then i could be completely off with what i have figured out.... If the Face Hugers in the Mural and Frescos are just Easter Eggs, well its something that could lead fans up a Garden Path to a completely different outcome... we have to ask why add such things.

The same can be said with the Disaster Set... i was not thinking they would be using CGI for the Engineers, maybe overlay like they did with Prometheus to add that Polish.... but i assumed and its hard to make out with such low resolution if the Set is actually Actors and Actresses?

But you mention they could be sculpted prop pieces... who knows if so then indeed it takes us on a different route as a Pompeii style Petrified as Stone Humanoid Remains Scene would make sense then... certainly not be a still image intended to be take from a action scene if indeed those Humanoids are Props and not Actors/Actresses.

As far as the Source this is something i have always said to be taken with a pinch of salt and for me i was skeptical as some things where a bit odd.... But then Ridley had months latter made comments and even after Alien Paradise Lost and Covenant was announced things seem to then connect to the Sources bizarre comments.

I have not spoken or had contact directly with the Source, its someone i know who has spoken to them, and this person is more skeptical than me but they have not invested a lot of time to study Prometheus as i have  and so the Sources comments to them may sounded more strange...   So we cant be sure, the Source did say in February 2015 that come the Autumn and especially after November that things would come out that will back up what they had been saying. So i can not be 100% sure, i have gone from being 15-20% believer in the information to a 40-50% since Alien Covenant had began production.

As far as the answers to Prometheus, they had been vague and cryptic like Ridley Scott, it seems that the planned Prometheus 2 would address a number of those mysteries from Prometheus and so i dont think they would give definite answers because this is what in part the sequel would be covering.

They did say that LV-223 and LV-426 are very connected, and Prometheus has enough clues to answer LV-426 but they are not in a spoon fed way.

The only thing i can draw from this is that the Experiments on LV-223 that led to the Engineers downfall on that Outpost are either a event that leads to the Space Jockey, or the event of the Space Jockey leads to what ever they was doing on LV-223.

They did bring up that Punishment was what led to the Xenomorph but they have been very cryptic and so its a case of its a matter of time and its hard to say if there is even the slightest grain of  salt to what they had said.

The whole connections are a bit of a mess to be honest, i think the purpose of the next movie and its sequel would be to clear up the various clues that has led so many people to different conclusions.

As far as knowledge of Prometheus that is 4 years old, they have been vague... but they had hinted that somewhere along the Hiearchy Chain that leads to Mankind something had been done that was not intended..... and that Forbidden Knowledge in the hands of those whom are not intended to have it leads to Rebellion and Punishment.

There is a theme of Creator, creates and creation rebels than creation creates and its sub-creation rebels and that this is the main theme that does not start with the Engineers and does not end with David 8.

And so again as with Ridley Scotts comments its all vary vague and we cant say for sure what or if the Source is on about or correct.... they did say that unless the vastly change the drafts with re-writes as they could still happen (which months latter it did) that eventually when the movie is done then things would make sense to what they was saying..... and the interesting thing for me is that The Matrix theme is more fitting... but again they dont go into full details....  so its a puzzle... and who knows it could be completely 100% fake....  time will tell and at the moment i am 40% drawn to consider the information and i am 30% doubtful and 30% with a pinch of salt.

I think at the end of the day the reason for doing the prequels was to answer the few questions left from Alien.

*Who was the Space Jockey and why was he carrying that Cargo

*What connection do they have with the Xenomorph and how did it come to be.

These Two points can be expanded upon, we did not need to know how he got there as its pretty obvious from those who have seen Alien that this place may have not been the Space Jockey's destination and they sucummed to the Cargo they was carrying....   Aliens and onwards kept making links about the Xenomorph being a Bio-Weapon.

And so its safe to assume this is what it was... and so prior to making Prometheus a few base things had been established.

*The Space Jockey Race, is very connected to the Cargo they have played a role in its creation and its intended use is as a kind of Biological Warfare.

*The Derelict thus with its Biological Warfare Cargo had set off from some place to go to a destination but it did not arrive due to getting infected with its own Cargo.

The Questions left are... How? and Why, and When.

And then... Why and when did they create the Bio-Weapon and then also what was the Agenda of the Space Jockey and who exactly was this Mysterious Giant Alien Pilot... where did he come from what was his purpose.

They had taken a Bold Route to show us these beings (Space Jockey) are Giant inter-galactic Genetic Gardeners who had played a role in the creation of Mankind and interaction with Mankind over many thousands of years, in which Mankind had been given knowledge to expand its own Scientific and Constructive Abilities. 

But then they had stopped comming to visit us.... and the Prometheus Crew found out that the place they thought they was being invited to by this beings is actually a place they was conducting horrific biological experiments that was intended to be used on Mankind.... but they could not control it and a outbreak had all but destroyed them all.

This made things interesting but it also leads to a potential poisoned chalice as far as connecting all of this Ancient Gods stuff and they then felt the Ancient Gods and Engineers stuff was what was best to explore... rather than the Xenomorph....

This seems to be the path they was going for, but have now had a U-Turn to cover the Xenomorph more....

i think going for the Engineers as part of Mankinds History and then having them want to destroy us... while a Bold and Interesting Plot.... is maybe something over complicated than if the Space Jockey was some Benevolent Race involved in some War and the Cargo was to be used for defense against a unknown threat that has no connection to Mankind but it fell victim to its Cargo.

Thus the Space Jockey was just like the Predator a Alien Race from far away where we know so little about....

But going the Ancient Mankind connection route may have complicated things a bit... just like the AVP movies when they tried to touch upon the same Topic with the Predators Agenda.

I was thinking earlier about the early scenes of Prometheus and from my perception a peaceful race seeding human life on earth - and how this is the polar opposite to the same beings we saw from relics and the behaviour of the surviving engineer on LV-223.  Whilst satisfying the status quo, timeline and many talks about David 8 re-creating the Xeno (or a form of) oppose to being responsible for creating the organism.  As well as the need to destroy earth and drives behind this...

I'm thinking that the following has happened within the history of the engineer race and could be a possible explanation of what we saw on LV-223 being part created; i.e. no eggs or direct relations to do he Xeno, only the sealed cylinders of black goo.

1. As with Earth the engineer race found a planet that was at face value capable of sustaining their DNA.  So as with Earth a sacrifice was made and life was seeded.  However, due to some life form or biological characteristic of the native organism the terraforming has catastrophic set of chain reactions - possibly not seen immediately, but over a period of time, millions of evolutionary years.  This oversight sets in motion the natural evolution of the Xenomorth and a macabre love affair with this "perfect organism" and fractions in the engineer society; one wishing to harness the organisms power and the other to destroy it as to not risk their own destruction.  So we would have an explanation of Xeno eggs forming naturally whether that be via a Queen or via morphing of hoasts (an organism created by a blend of engineer black goo and a natural hardened organism on the Xeno's side planet of origin).

2. The planet in Covenant is either the home world of the engineers or the planet of origin for the Xeno's (I'm thinking the latter; splintering of Ridleys story the engineers home world may be a  direction all on its own).  So the engineers start to study the benefits of the Xeno and perhaps the black goo mutates (royal jelly theory) and effects engineer society and a biological level - thus the split between peaceful and scientific engineers. Or even that they are desperate to prevent a disease, or the spread of the Xeno race.  So in an attempt to control the infestation the planet is scorched, but a research centre for either the study of or the destruction of the XEno is established on LV-223.  The crashed derelict on LV-426 could be as a result of transporting or disposal of the Xeno's egg cargo to the research facility.  The accidents to create the crash and disaster on all of the connected planetoids could be as a result of the splits in the engineer society and or....

3. As a result of the accidental mix between the engineers source of life and the Xeno DNA a disease is created which directly effects the motivations of the engineers contracting it. Therefore some would actively sabotage experiments and or release test subjects of the Xeno's.  Our surviving engineer from LV-223 having the motivation to either destroy or save earth having the belief that we may have contracted the disease.

Indeed there has been some changes to the whole Agenda and plot behind these Engineers, and your assumptions are correct to a degree to what we had seen....

The Sacrificial Scene was one of a Benevolent Act, it was a act of great importance to the Engineers it was a necessary Sacrifice for the greater good benefit to their kind.

Ridley referred to it as being like Ancient Mayan Culture, where the Elders would choose one Person who would be chosen to be the Sacrifice and this person is treated like a Prince for a Year until the day they are Sacrificed to their Gods for the greater good so that the next years Harvest would be good.... 

I am not so sure about the Sacrificial connection as such as Ancient Mankind did Sacrifice to appease the Gods...  however i am drawn to the Engineers Scene as being more to it than that.

The Full Scene was much longer than the deleted Scene, but there is no Script leak or video of the full Scene... but there is on one of the Bonus Discs a extended one with Elder Engineer Dialect (Full Scene had two way between Elder and Sacrificial Engineers).

Here is a extract of the shorter version... and so this Sacrifice had a great importance to the Engineers....

The Full Engineer Speaks to David Scene was never shown as there was many pages of Dialog that Fassbender and Whyte had to learn and Whyte (Engineer) even acted out his own lines, but he was then dubbed over by some other Actor and most of his replies by the dubbed over voice was not actually the same Ancient PIE that Fassbender used.

The full Scenes of this Engineer which include when he found the Life Boat painted a different picture of the Engineer, we got the impression maybe he never full agreed with what the other Engineers had planned for Mankind.... but upon seeing Weyland turn up and seeing that Weyland saw only his own Agenda and Questions mattered and that Mankind was still selfish, arrogant and now they had found LV-223 and could get there and even had created a Life Form that can speak with the Engineers and use their Technology...

At this point the Engineer knew that he must continue the planned Mission to Destroy Mankind.

The Concept work for the Engineers Cryo-Pod was labeled as HERO CHAMBER... and so who was he a Hero for?  Engineers or Mankind?   And so its something to speculate about regarding how he alone survived and maybe we could consider Sabotage at play?

Ridleys original ideas, seemed to point to that there was a point where the Engineers or at least a Faction of them had taken a interest in Mankind.... until there was a point when about 2000 years ago... Mankinds Rebellious ways and the way we was acting back in those times was totally against the Engineers wishes and plans for us... they had tried to get us on the right track (sending down a Emissary) but we Crucified him.... yes the Jesus Angle... but they dropped this but the whole point was still Valid...

Mankind had become Lost, Rebellious ,Selfish we had turned out to become something they had not intended and so they decided to PULL THE PLUG

its also indicated that there could be TWO different views to the Engineers, Two Factions with differing objectives...

But we have to remember a lot was cut from the movie, so as to paint the Engineers in a different light.... now it appears they are no more than Biological Terminators who answer to some other Beings higher up in the Hierarchy.

@BD and the source 

Thanks for your response and for not being defensive and it also makes more sense with it being once removed.

My view is Ridley is quite capable of self promotion, he was in advertising for years, and he likes to use strap lines and power phrases to get his point across. Prometheus was "all about everything". So I think he takes a concept like Paradise Lost or the Promethean myth and allows it to "inform" him.

People then begin applying rigorous analysis to it and over think what is in Ridleys mind. Prometheus the myth as applied to the film Prometheus is pretty straight forward. Messing with the ordained way leads to punishment and bad outcomes its in practically every character arc and story telling move. LV223 went wrong, the Prometheus mission went wrong, both were driven by the same thing that drove the myth "Playing with and attempting to steel the fire"

I am quite sure the same will apply to the Paradise Lost theme. The Engineers society was a disaster the Covenant mission will be a disaster. The former maybe quite linear simply explaining what precisely happened on LV223 and where we are with the mutagen. With the mission there will be bad guys and the genuinely innocent which is what will give the film its edge so more multi faceted. Innocents reaching out for Shangri La will find it is not that at all and possibly those that took them knew that.  

However when discussing themes and applicability its possible to make everything "all about everything" when in fact sometimes a cigar is a cigar and it doesn't need a so called source to work that out. Whoever the source is the one thing they haven't done is sit down and write a cogent straight forward thesis for Prometheus and this coming winter it occurred to me I would have fun on my blog "myloveof prometheus" and pull together an interpretation based on only whats in the film and what the creators of the film have said about it commentaries. Just the other day I read a piece written by the creator of the headroom who makes it crystal clear its a ceremonial room where they offer the vials to an image of themselves. If that doesn't reinforce that what you and I think is going on in the headroom is correct nothing will. A head that looks like an Engineer is .. an Engineers Head.          

Indeed i think Paradise Lost has to play some role... but again we should never take it too literal... the same was with Prometheus theme it was there but not literal.... however depending where they go with it then it could be more detailed than the Prometheus connection in Prometheus.

Which was vague in a way that with the clues offers us a number of ways that could have fitted.  Only one that seems stand out to me the most is something some Engineers had done, related to what Prometheus had done... and they too like Prometheus had been punished.   But we are not to follow it up exactly as the Greek Mythos followed on after Prometheus and his punishment.

Likewise Covenant has to have a meaning or more... right now again i am thinking the Covenant could do with why the Engineers had abandoned us...   and never followed up on our destruction.     Like in the Biblical connection God made a Covenant to never Flood Earth again...

It would be interesting to see how this plays in Alien Covenant and maybe it has multiple meanings and so could apply to some Covenant David makes or breaks between Engineers or Shaw.

Then again Covenant could apply to a pact made in the aftermath of this movie... between the survivors of the Covenant and someone else....

But i would certainly be sure that at least one of those 3 potential Covenant/Agreements comes to play.

As far as the Source... the person who i have who was in contact could not get much out of them as far as totally spilling the beans, they did give information on the Engineers and their World, and Xenomorph... as we already know eventually this is where they are taking us... but the source is very coy to not give away Shaws role and also the 3rd Plot  device as to not spoil the movie.

As far as Prometheus it seems that the next movie would address what questions people had over that movie, but the Source had claimed that the movie had the answers, the only ones it never had or that was very open would be answered in the next movie.

So i think the meant that vaguely why we was to be destroyed and how the Xeno came to be and why was answered in the first movie..... The only questions that was not was really why was we created.  And this is where Shaws mission objective to find these beings would give us those answers.