In a recent interview, director Ridley Scott unveiled a new title for the next film in the Alien franchise.
Although the Prometheus follow-up previously went by Alien: Paradise Lost, Scott mentioned that the film now bears the title Alien: Covenant. Both names, however, have biblical references, unlike Prometheus, which got its title from a character from Greek mythology.
Scott mentioned Alien: Covenant in an interview with Indiewire about his latest film, The Martian.
"I was going to be doing what will be called Alien: Covenant, which starts shooting next February, and we were struggling then with the screenplay there and then there was a phone call, somebody saying, 'Listen, we've got this thing which is completely written called [The] Martian,' and I said, 'Huh.' And I sped read it in an hour and by midafternoon, I talked to Fox and said, 'I need to talk to 'Drew [Goddard]...' "
In September, Scott mentioned that he had three sequels to Prometheus planned, all leading up to events that happened in the 1979 Alien film. Prometheus, as well as these three planned movies, will serve as prequels for the original Alien film franchise.
However, Scott also recently mentioned that Alien: Covenant would act as a direct sequel to Prometheus, but the film will also have a connection to Ripley from the original film franchise.
"In a way it is Prometheus 2," the director said to Empire. "It's exactly the same story. But it was always in the works to be called that [Alien: Paradise Lost]. Is Prometheus actually taking us off course from where I'm going, which is actually backing into the first Alien... I've even got connections with Ripley [in this], but I'm not telling you what."
Of course, Scott made this statement before changing the title of the film.
Here's the official synopsis for Alien: Covenant:
"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 seminal work of science fiction. 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 (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition."
Alien: Covenant won't arrive in theaters until May 2017, with production beginning sometime next year, but Scott's The Martian, based on the novel by Andy Weir, is still playing in most theaters now.
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