When the science-fiction movie “Prometheus” was shown in June 2012, director Ridley Scott has said that it is the first of a prequel trilogy to the “Alien” movie franchise which he began in 1979.
Considering the 33-year gap from the showing of the first “Alien” movie to that of “Prometheus,” only a limited number of fans understood and appreciated how the new movie is the prequel to the first series. Visually, the only connection is the same alien monster in the “Alien” movie series, called the xenomorph, showed up in “Prometheus.”
Beyond the xenomorphs, it was quite difficult, even for the fans of the “Alien” franchise to make the connection right away. But Michael Fassbender’s synthetic android character David showed semblance to the droid character Bishop, played by Lance Henriksen, in the “Alien” franchise.
After quietly making it big in the box-office in 2012, rumors started circulating about “Prometheus 2.”
Up until last month, the sequel had the working title of “Prometheus 2.” But Ridley Scott has apparently announced that the movie shall no longer have ‘Prometheus’ in the title of the upcoming movie.
New title and synopsis
First to be floated was “Alien: Lost Paradise,” but it was apparently been retitled to “Alien: Covenant” and the upcoming movie now has an official logo and synopsis from 20th Century Fox, reports the Independent of UK.
The production film says that Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in “Alien” with “Alien: Covenant,” the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with “Prometheus” and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 critically-acclaimed science fiction work.
As for the movie’s official synopsis, it said that the crew of the colony ship Covenant, who are in a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world whose sole inhabitant is the synthetic David, played by Michael Fassbender, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
The description by 20th Century Fox confirms that there will be another film after “Alien: Covenant.” Scott has said previously that the first sequel would not lead straight to the original and that it would take time for the series to explain what happened.
However, with the retitling of “Prometheus 2” to “Alien: Covenant,” it seems that Scott already wants to make the connection early because just by its mere title alone, fans would finally understand and appreciate that it is a prequel of the very successful “Alien” franchise. It is also one way of bringing in more viewers to eclipse the success of the first movie.
Once Scott completes “Alien: Covenant,” Neil Blomkamp can then proceed to direct “Aliens 5,” the upcoming sequel of the “Alien” franchise. “Aliens: Resurrection,” the fourth movie in the film series, was last shown in 1997 so it is likely that its sequel will be shown some two decades later, notes the Geek.
Filming to begin early next year
There were reports a few months ago that the sequel to the highly-successful science-fiction flick “Prometheus” shown in 2012 has been given a playdate of March 2016, alluding that filming for the movie has already begun then but were being done in strict secrecy.
The same report also claimed that the working title for the movie was “Prometheus 2: Hell on Earth,” which was consistent with the previous rumors that the sequel will be shot in the engineers’ home planet which happens to be earth.
Now, it is fast shaping up that all those rumors are not true at all and were most likely fabricated and circulated by wildly enthusiastic fans of the franchise in the absence of an official statement from the producers as well as critically-acclaimed director Ridley Scott.