James Franco officially in Alien: Covenant; Waterston packs heat in new pic

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

UPDATE: The official announcement has been made that James Franco is joining ALIEN: COVENANT, proving the rumors true.

Just earlier this morning, two new images with mysterious numerical captions were released to promote Ridley Scott's upcoming PROMETHEUS sequel ALIEN: COVENANT.

Now, just as that excitement is dying down, another image has burst onto the scene. In this one, Katherine Waterston (who has made an auspicious appearance in this year's FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM) is rocking short hair and a big ol' gun. Her character Daniels looks like she's certainly capable of handling herself in the plastic sheeting environment she's surrounded by, but only time will tell if she can match Ripley's effortless badassery.

Check out the image below!

From a screenplay by Michael Green, Jack Paglen, and John Logan, ALIEN: COVENANT is said to be set ten years after the events of PROMETHEUS and tells the following story:

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the "synthetic" David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

Katherine Waterson, James Franco Danny McBride, Benjamin Rigby, Demian Bichir, Jussie Smollett, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Callie Hernandez, Billy Crudup, Noomi Rapace, James Franco, and Guy Pearce star, along with Michael Fassbender in the dual role of androids David and Walter.

ALIEN: COVENANT touches down in theaters on the brand new, earlier date of May 19, 2017.