Twentieth Century Fox has released the first full-length trailer for "Alien: Covenant," showcasing short glimpses of the new Neomorph alien as well as the crew of the Covenant spacecraft. The trailer also shows Michael Fassbender playing the android Walter, a machine designed similar to David from "Prometheus."
"Alien: Covenant" takes place several years following the events of "Prometheus" in which David is now the sole inhabitant of a distant planet. The Covenant crew head to the planet aiming to find an uncharted paradise only to discover it is home to some of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy.
Katherine Waterston's Daniels is shown prominently in the trailer and there are glimpses of Billy Crudup as the ship's captain and Danny McBride as the ship's pilot. Although Noomi Rapace is returning as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw from "Prometheus," she is not shown in the trailer.
Fassbender is featured in the footage but only as Walter. The actor will also be reprising his character David but this older android was not shown. While the two machines share a similar physical design, Walter has a less humanlike personality compared to David.
The new type of alien, the Neomorph, also makes its debut in the trailer. One of the earliest sequences in the trailer focuses on one of the ship's crewmembers dying as the Neomorph begins breaking out of the person's back. This is a sharp contrast from the Xenomorph of the original "Alien" movie in which they burst out of a person's chest.
Director Ridley Scott also confirmed that the movie would not just be an explorative science fiction film the way "Prometheus" was. Instead, it will meld that movie's scope and themes with the horror atmosphere from the older "Alien" movies.
"It's much scarier than Prometheus but it's got the same sort of scope of Prometheus," he stated in an interview with Collider. "It's kind of got more of the sort of thriller, imminent disaster feel that Alien had, so it's kind of a beautiful meeting of both of those films."
"Alien: Covenant" was originally scheduled to release by April 4 next year but according to Polygon the studios pushed it back, launching it against the upcoming "Baywatch" reboot. The movie will now release on May 19, 2017. The full-length trailer can be viewed below: