Ridley Scott confirms engineers will return in sequel to Covenant

@BigDave. That is a great storyline you conjured up.

And because it is good, I'm sure they won't go that route.

Right now, RS seems like he is confused about what direction he wants to take this series (If we get any more movies). At this point, I would not be shocked with anything that may happen...Engineers/No engineers/different alien race(s)/ Weyland-Yutani robot hunters/Industrial espionage-sabotage/David impregnation/Elizabeth Shaw clone/young Ellen Ripley/etc, etc (ad nauseaum) ...Nothing would surprise me.

It is quite possible that after the reception of AC, RS is having his staff scour fan-boards just like ours looking for viable plotlines to where to take this franchise next. TO me, if you have good ideas, post them on here now....maybe it will make it into the next movie(s)...or maybe not.

Awesome.

Like to see those massive mother ships of the Engineers come in to play! Not just the tiny Juggernauts!

I just front-paged this. Thanks so much for the find!! Up-voting this as well. Well done!

@Neomorpheus - Thank-you & all contributors so much for giving me hope for the future installments!!  Let's make sure Sir Ridley makes these next movies a priority & gets going right away!

@Nathan - The video where Ridley made the War of the Worlds comment has been posted here several time already. Here is is again -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo30bZc10D0&t=47s

He says coming in to investigate so that rules out Daniels, David, Tennessee and xenomorphs...as they are already at the location to investigate.

these 4 groups are coming in to investigate which could be one heck of a collision or meet up in space.

i feel that there will obviously be the following:

* The Engineers (the ones from Prometheus) because he clearly stated as much

*More than likely Weyland-Yutani who somehow piece together what David has or is doing...although this would make the next movie take place at least 2-3 yrs after the Covenant as the time to travel to that sector of space was established in Prometheus

* I feel one of the other coming to investigate could be Walter, i have high hopes that he will be included in the next installment, i really liked his character and the elements having him come to the rescue could create in another film

* I hope that the next film's 4th group or faction coming to investigate is some type of high being, one that is above the engineers and very powerful, and horrific, somehow perhaps adding back some of that ancient Lovecraftian cosmic terror feel we had from the 1st installment

____________________________

I do not think one of the factions will be among the following:

-it wont be some random ship full of humans because at this point in the Alien film timeline there just arent that many ships cruising around Zeta 2 Reticuli

* Colonial Marines, for one that is a construct of Cameron and Ridley has avoided using most if not all Cameron's tweaks to this film universe. Ok let's say he does include them but the Colonial Marines had never heard of this type of creature in Aliens. Of course it could have been a Black Ops mission so only the ones that went knew about so it remained a secret. But the main reason they wont be one of the (4) factions is this, and its a bigee, the Colonial Marines they didn't really exist at this point in time because this is several (7-9) decades before colonization really had starting occurring throughout the universe, thus no actual Colonial Marines. I feel that the Weyland Yutani group of the (4) investigators may have a military faction with them but they will not be separate.

-__________

So :

The Engineers

The Ancient Cosmic Higher Power

Weyland Yutani

Walter

i think that would be awesome and explosive if the 4 groups were those.

Ridley Scott should take note that we want a god-being in the next one so powerful it could solo the Halo and Star Wars universes combined. Seriously, pull some seriously insane, Lovecraftian, Giger shit out of your a...-I mean memory banks-for this one.

I think the Key thing to remember is the Gardeners of Space

And as i have mentioned a number of times and on some recent Posts... latest one the Holloway one regarding the Engineers created us because THEY COULD...

Prometheus set up the Huge Plot and was confirmed by RS and Lindeloff, that these beings had not just created Life on Earth in this manner.

We have to then accept it is a bit Pointless to go around seeding Worlds just because they could...

Its likely they Seed Worlds and Genetically experiment on them in a attempt to create a Hybrid to their liking or needs... or that indeed creating Humanoids is a requirement they need for their greater Agenda... or that of their Hierarchy.

This is where the Plot can vary a lot depending on who is at the Top of this Chain.

I have always for many years viewed Earth as a Garden, or a Patch of Land, or even a Large Plant Plot....  and LV-223 would be like a Nursery/Green house where these Engineers conduct experiments and evolve/hybrid the Genetic Fruit of their Labor... where they Test them and when happy with the results they Plant them in the Garden

If you have a Garden or Plots of Land and are growing different Crop, Veg or Fruit and you wish to experiment on improving them and creating Hybrids you would do so in a separate Nursery/Greenhouse and then Plant the new Creations/Evolved ones back to the Patches of Land once you know the results are Good and will not cause any problems to the other Fruit/Veg/Crop

This is what LV-223 was.

I would expect that Paradise was a Place where these Genetic Crop/Fruit had Originated from... Paradise being the Place where Humanoids was first Evolved upon and then these Humanoids are then take and Seeded on other Worlds.

Now with a Fruit if you wish to grow these you would have to take a few Fruit and take the Seeds from them... doing so would mean having to Destroy/Damage the Fruit... the Fruits Purpose is to become Dissolved (Eaten) and then its Seed passed to the Earth to Grow.

If we now look at the Fruit and replace with Humanoids, then in order to Seed Humanoids.. the Engineers must dissolve the Humanoids to allow for the Seed... this is the Sacrificial Scene

And so this is done on MANY Worlds.... and we have to ask WHY

I think this WHY Seed worlds is the BIG Question... its one that Made Prometheus what it was, and its one that upset many non-Prometheus fans especially the whole connection to Ancient Mythos and Religions...

But then its EXPLORING the WHY and WHO is at the Top of this Chain and what PURPOSE it all has thats interesting... because they could reveal the Very Purpose as something very very Horrific

Where the Top of the Chain... would view Mankind, even Engineers as no more than We would view a Bunch of Grapes or Bowl of Oranges and Apples.

so those at the Top of the Chain... would see Paradise has become Corrupted as far as Environment and Fruit it was to bare...  If you owned your own Land where you grew many Fruit/Veg/Crop and some of your Crop/Fruit/Veg had become infected and contaminated you would be very concerned and have to take measures to find out what is the Cause.. find it and eradicate it.

I think this is what we will see happen in the Franchise.

As far as how they can head back to something that would please Alien Fans Especially.... is again the whole Purpose for Creation of Humanoid Life....

So i think trying to bring in HR Gigers Mural would be KEY.. but i think this is what they should have done.. but they did not and now AC has set a path, that this no longer fits.

HR Giger Influenced more Potentially than we realize and his Vision is what should have been followed.  And in part is what i was going to cover in my Prometheus 2... well it would be set down a foundation that a Prometheus 3 would have covered.

If you look at HR Gigers 2nd Mural (first one had more Earth like Helmets) we notice a number of things.

*The U-Shaped Xenomorph type object, represents the Derelict and shows it Genetically is connected to the Xenomorph. The ship is thus a Living Bio-Mechanical Organism.

*This Ship Produces the Eggs, which Evolve from like a Tiny Worm.  HR Gigers Murals were intended to go above the Egg Silo compartments as i have shown in Green Arrows..  HR Giger had envisioned that the Silo has Pregnant like Bellies that would give birth to the Eggs. As shown in the image posted.

*The Mural had these Humanoids in Space Suits, Sacrificing themselves to Procreate the Organism.  Note these beings Suits are the same as those in the other TWO Face Huger Designs and notice these beings are Bald Humanoids, their Suits similar to the Engineers on LV-223.  

*The beings in the Mural have Helmets and the back of their Suits all look very much similar to the Prometheus Space Jockey Suits.

so much seemed to be influenced in Prometheus... the Mural in Prometheus even has those TWO Face Hugger Concepts in it, a Easter Egg maybe... but it could have meant more.

I think there is still a way to go and explore the HR Giger ideas and have this as the Horrific Agenda.... because if we look at HR Gigers Mural and concepts.

Then ask....

Why do these beings Sacrifice themselves for the Procreation of this Organism.

What is the Hierarchy of the Egg Producing Ship/Beings, did they create the Ships to Self Sacrifice themselves?

Did some other Race Create those Ships that Produce Eggs, and then created or enslaved those beings to be part of the Sacrificial Rituals.

I think Ultimately something along these lines could be still explored as a purpose for WHY the Engineers/Elders was created and where they Ultimately Stole/Re-weaponized their Juggernauts from.

But we can only hope...

@BigDave. Good stuff. I just hope RS doesn't 'eradicate" too quickly in the next movie.

Your details on LV223 were in line with what I was thinking. You also made me realize that even though AC shut the door on many of the creation tenets brought along in Prometheus, there is still a lot to explore. If RS is willing to bring the Engineers back and get of their story told in context with the Alien franchise as well as tempering his "I-Robot" fetish, I think we can have a hell of a movie for the next iteration.

There are many other gaps that RS can touch on as well;people forget that we have seen two different types of ships...The large sauce shaped craft from Prometheus and the Juggernaut bio-mechanical looking crafts. There is so much to explore here!

Also the question why did someone send a signal for humans to come to LV223?

So many questions...I truly hope the answers aren't all crammed into one movie...

That could be interesting if they connect it closer to the Xeno/Xeno-like life-forms and the Space jockey otherwise I won’t care. Hopefully they will manage to put them into the movie in some smart way. I don’t want them portrayed as they were in Prometheus because that was kind of bad.

I still hope that the SJ is like a cousin to the Engineers and not an Engineer itself and defiantly not David but I prepare for the worst. We have already seen bad decisions about the Alien franchise so I am prepared for another.

My hope is that they will make the Covenant sequel a lot better than Prometheus but my guess is that it won’t be that as mediocre as P which is a good thing. AC was an improvement let’s see if they can develop it into an even better movie.

Big Dave mentions the Weyland and Yutani companies. I am not sure if I am very interested in that part of the story. This could turn out to be a very boring movie if they would explore that aspect but they could make it right but they need to focus on the characters, and logic and not make it extremely confusing/illogical/vague but if they do they need to tie it to the Xeno and Xeno-like monsters in a clever way.

The fan reactions to Prometheus probably changed the movie that would become Covenant into the better. With Shaw being the character that she is, following her and David on the Engineer planet would maybe be boring so I am glad that they did the way they did.

I agree with Nathan about references. “I think that I have read something somewhere” isn’t that convincing.

Suwhited:

“It is quite possible that after the reception of AC, RS is having his staff scour fan-boards just like ours looking for viable plotlines to where to take this franchise next.” 

I don’t mean to sound rude but I think that they have better things to do than to read message boards.

Interesting points Thoughts_Dreams

The power of the people is what changed RS plans however... they had indeed saw the Reaction of Prometheus and saw the growing interest and Hype for Alien 5.

Prometheus did not show us how the Xenomorph came to be not in a Spoon Fed Way.. not a clearer set of Clues either. It also lacked any Eggs and Xenomorphs... Not compared to Spaights Draft

Prometheus 2 was set to explore the Engineers Culture and Agenda the why they created Mankind, the why maybe LV-223 was set up.... no doubt it would have explored the Black Goo and effects and Engineers and Agenda.... but it was to steer away from the Classic Xenomorph and not Directly give us the Alien Eggs and Xenomorph from Alien or even show us how they got on the Derelict.

Blomkamps Alien 5... gave us Aliens, Eggs, a Queen and Ripley etc etc.

I think and RS confirmed it... in Hindsight they felt they had to have gave more clues to the Eggs in Alien, and had to introduce Aliens more into it... the only Alien things in Prometheus was  Toned Down Fifield Zombie who kills most people off.... Hammerpede Worms that just suffocated/killed Milburn and then the Trilobite which just leads to a Xeno-linked Deacon but never explored it.

My Prometheus re-write which i had part done addressed a lot of this.. Fifield was a more Xeno-Hybrid.. did not kill as many people, died on top of someone and Acid Blood Melted them.  The Hammerpedes lead to a Chest Buster that was killed and revealed the Hammerpedes had tiny Xeno Eggs in them.

So i think RS and FOX felt they had to bring the Alien back into it.... now a Source i had over 2 years ago had said the movie did plan to have TWO kinds of Monsters related to the Xenomorph but different... One a event created by David, the other not.. but it was not a Alien movie it would have few related Monsters. That set up a Sequel that would reveal more of a Alieny Movie... From the clues they gave it seems that David Re-creates something that is similar but different to the Xenomorph that based on the Ultramorph/Necronom 4 and likely a Money Shot end of Movie event.... but that there would be another Monster that was not created by David 8 directly that was supposed to be based of another Giger Alien Design and that was Translucent.

But AC seems to be a bit different, but from reports from people working on the movie.. it appears the Neomorph and Protomorph where indeed originally going to be a bit different and the Protomorph was to had been more like the Necronom 4

@Thought_dreams. To the contrary.

Fan reaction was exactly the reason RS changed the direction of Prometheus: Paradise to the storyline in Alien: Covenant. he said it himself "that he had seen the reactions and comments from fans regarding Prometheus..."

@Thoughts_Dreams

Indeed the W-Y company is a interesting part but one that covering a movie towards would not interest a lot of Fans who overall want ALIEN Eggs and Xenomorphs and so FOX cant risk and especially how Prometheus was received for trying to do something different and cover other things than those EGGS

This i feel is why FOX have commissioned ADF to do a Prequel to AC which will explore the Corporate Side of the Story and how it links.. this will be out in September.. called Alien Covenant : Origins which is a misleading Title... but so was so much of the Marketing.

This Book is not connected to Alien at all as far as Xenomorph or Engineers from what i can gather... it is just a Prequel to the Covenant Mission....  but then i guess they can hardly make the Book   Covenant: Origins or Covenant: Inception even if if they add under it...  Prequel Novel to Alien Covenant..   so they have gone for Alien Covenant: Origins.. which is misleading.

Likewise i feel FOX could commission a Book about the Engineers rather than Risk $$$$$$ on a Movie about them in-case it does not break even... which they would be more concerned with now due to how AC was received and did at BOX Office.

But i think a Novel about the Engineers could work, and i think also covering eventually what happened from Prometheus to the Alien Covenant would work... i think it would be Great for ADF to release a Novel down the line called   Alien Covenant: The Crossing.

I may even be attempted to cover this in a Fan Fiction..  but i think for those who would have liked to had seen this stuff covered on screen, they wont get it because FOX really cant risk Millions and Millions of $$$$ on such a Movie unless they feel it will not Harm/Put of Aliens Fans from the Franchise and also if they can Guarantee it would make a 150% Return on its Budget. which they really cant... and trying to cover such a Movie on a Budget less than 50M and a movie that revolved around only David and Shaw really would not be done justice on a low budget and would also be a Huge Risk on a larger than say 40-50M+ as far as it making back $100-120M Minimum and i feel FOX are not in the Market to make Movies to please Fans and break Even...  but to actually make a 200% Profit.

@suwhited

Indeed, we just dont know how far RS will go with the Engineers, i am not sure we will see a Full HR Giger version of them... we need to remember Prometheus => Alien Covenant has explored the Black Goo as connected to the Xenomorph but so far all effects have not given us that HR Giger Bio-Mechanical Atheistic  and so its likely the Black-Goo Origin is something more Parasitic and Organic.

The Questions are how they will connect to Alien as far as how the Xenomorph becomes more Bio-Mechanical and how the Derelict does too... as far as how the Xenomorph becomes more Mechanical and the Juggernauts become more Organic.

I think anyone expecting a very HR Giger World and the Space Jockey being more Alien than the Engineers never mind not being a Space Suit will be let down.

And as i had mentioned... its likely the Xenomorph Strain Origins is more Organic... and the Engineers Bio-Mechanical Atheistic is not much different than we have seen in Prometheus.

Thus a more likely way of seeing a Giger World and Atheistic is by having some event where the Xeno-Strain Black Goo and Bio-Mechanical Engineer Technology is fused together from some kind of Accident.

There is hope for a True Origins where the Ships Originally are more Organic and Life-like... but i am not sure we will explore this at all.

Big Dave:

I don’t think that a sort of follow-up that is closer to Prometheus got to be crap, should they have kept some of the things in Prometheus then it could have been a lot better (Xeno-Fifield, explaining the touching of the space-Cobra, and so on). They need better human characters and there Prometheus is a prime example of how they shall Not be made. We as an audience got to be able to see ourselves in the characters or at least sympathize with them in some way otherwise it will be crap. Even though Alien Covenant was a step in the right direction character wise it was far from enough but still it was a positive surprise to me in that way.

My belief is that Alien 5 in the context of Prometheus and Alien increased the quality of Covenant since it drew it closer to the Xeno. Not that I would have watched Blomkamp’s planned movie but it probably made AC more interesting.

The black goo is interesting but it should also be kept closer to the Xeno. This doesn’t mean that we need to see the exact link between the goo and the Xeno but just enough to see much clearer the link between them compared to what we were given in Prometheus. Some mystery is nice to have.

Keep a closer connection to the Xeno compared to Prometheus, and they got to explain the Engineers connection to the SJ and Xeno. If the Engineer will say something that is important to the story then they will need Sub-titles (!) because that scene with Weyland and the Engineer is still frustrating to see. What is even worse is that they had a version that explained it better but they threw it into the trash-can.

With Lindelof gone and that we were given a better movie with Alien Covenant my hopes have been getting bigger that we will get a better movie with the sequel to Alien Covenant that will be better than AC and Prometheus. I wouldn’t mind if they kept the writers for AC. My fear is that they will make it as disappointing as Prometheus as far as the characters are concerned and the Xeno connection and as a result consequence of the Xeno connection how they portray the Engineers.

Keep the Engineers like biological terminators and make them less close to human DNA (not, they are us, that is lame). They got to be a lot more frightening (frightening with a capital F) compared to Prometheus because my reaction to them in Prometheus was like I shrugged and thought “Oh yeah? So? Was that all?”. Unfortunately, they were a total disappointment I didn’t like it at all how they were portrayed.

Yes a closer link to the Xeno and the deadly biology as far as the Engineers and the goo are concerned would be welcome. Keep the source of the goo a mystery since it could be as interesting as the Xeno if it is being done right.

The Xeno connection in Prometheus was lame. The Hammerpede worm that entered the mouth of Fifield was nasty but it didn’t have enough of a Xeno connection even though the conection was there in a way. I kind of liked the deacon and the Squid.

It wouldn’t surprise me if your re-write was a lot better than how Prometheus turned out.

A translucent monster could be interesting but it should have some mystery about it also.

 Big Dave:

As far as the WY company goes it could be done right but it could be very difficult to do that in a good way. This is a reason why I think that they should leave that alone.

@BigDave

Why they seed worlds?  Could be a pragmatic reason.

Let's assume they have hundreds of experimental worlds seeded and all of them are more or less humanoids with some minor differences in mental and physical capabilities.

Then i would consider a planet like "planet 4" as an almost successful experiment and these lifeforms could be integreted in their greater society since they are almost as good as the originals.

With this mindset/plans i expect the Engineers endgoal is to create life so their society/race as a whole is stronger and more stable and less prone to be extinct (if natural catastrphic events happen, supernova, etc.).

They just made the same what we humans started (recently, eye blink in comparison to the Engineers) with the exploration of space & expansion into it.

Expand to the universe so they dont get extinct. But already with tens of millions of years headstart in technology, culture, body-evolution and numbers.