Ridley Scott’s ALIEN: COVENANT was not the major hit the studio wanted it to be last year, earning so-so reviews and not generating much interest outside the core fanbase. As a result the planned sequels have been put on a bit of a hold, but in Empire’s new Empire Classics Alien Special issue (via HN Entertainment, The A.V. Club) it was revealed that COVENANT writer John Logan has already finished the script for the follow-up – ALIEN: AWAKENING – and now some new plot details hint the story would have brought the whole series full circle.
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The story would supposedly pick up right after the events of COVENANT, which at one point found the well-postured android David (Michael Fassbender) committing an act of genocide on the Engineers (the race that gave life to Earth). Turns out, not all the Engineers were wiped out, and AWAKENING would find some survivors hunting down David, resulting in a final showdown on LV-426, the very place where Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and her crew landed in the very first ALIEN movie all those decades ago.
Here is a more direct synopsis straight from the Empire issue (via HN):
“Logan’s script would have seen the return of PROMETHEUS’ engineers, with that species’ survivors coming after the genocidal David. Setting-wise, Scott said it was obvious ‘we’re gonna actually go to the planet’. By which we assume he means LV-426.”
While we didn’t see much of them in COVENANT before they were slaughtered, 2012’s PROMETHEUS showed the Engineers as the bulking, milk-skinned beings who came to Earth and spread the genetic material that gave life to the planet. While that movie was seen as being light on the ALIEN gore and tension, COVENANT tried to right the ship a bit by bringing in the full Xenomorph, ending things by having him storing more eggs on the now captured colonization ship. AWAKENING would find the Engineers catching up to him, likely resulting in a big fight that causes some deadly aliens to get loose, leading into the story of the first ALIEN.
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Should that angle be true it would make sense in terms of bringing the story full circle, explaining how everything we’ve seen ties into Ripley and her crew members in the first movie. However, I can see why Fox may be a little hesitant to make that movie. Not only did COVENANT fail to make a solid amount at the box office, but also, who’s going to see a movie with only David and Engineers? Fassbender is great, no doubt, but unless they plan on putting an A-list actor in a giant, cream-colored Engineer suit that’s not a ton of star power to sell an expensive sci-fi film. Only time will tell if Fox wants another outing, and it was five years between PROMETHEUS and COVENANT, so maybe that gives us a hint.