‘Alien: Covenant’ has a release date, horrifying trailer out

New trailer for 20th Century Fox’s upcoming horror flick “Alien: Covenant” is out. From what can be seen in the video, the movie brings back the Xenomorph, a slime-coated extraterrestrial creature with rows of nasty, sharp teeth, through Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi film. The “Alien: Covenant” will establish a connection between “Prometheus” (2012) and the original “Alien” (1979) movie.

The "Alien: Covenant" trailer begins with showing the titular spaceship Covenant making its way to an uncharted planet that looks suitable for colonisation. Once on the planet, the crew come across a wheat field and realise that something is amiss. [Watch the trailer below.]

“What are the odds of finding human vegetation this far from Earth?” one crew member is heard asking. Then someone else asks, “You hear that? Nothing — no birds, no animals, nothing.”

The crew eventually figure out that humans have already visited the planet before them. Furthermore, they find out that the planet is actually a dangerous world, one that is inhabited by beastly Xenomorphs. The Xenomorph XX121, or simply Xenomorphs, are aliens that reproduce through implanting larvae in a living host and kill the host in the process. One by one, the species kill the crew when they become targeted as their hosts. The official synopsis reads:

"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."

Actors Michael Fassbender (David), Noomi Rapace (Elizabeth Shaw) and Guy Pearce (Peter Weyland) reprise their roles from “Prometheus,” according to Entertainment Weekly. Others joining the cast include Katherine Waterston, Demian Bichir, James Franco, Danny McBride and Billy Crudup. Fox has yet to make an announcement regarding their roles.

“Alien: Covenant” is directed by Ridley Scott. Jack Paglen, Michael Green and John Logan wrote the screenplay. The movie is a sequel to “Prometheus,” which reportedly made around US$403 million (AU$525 million) internationally, according to Variety. Its story is set before the Sigourney Weaver-starrer, "Aliens."

The upcoming film is the sixth in the “Alien” franchise. The first was released in 1979 titled “Alien,” followed by “Aliens” (1986), “Alien 3” (1992), “Alien: Resurrection” (1997) and "Prometheus" (2012). Two crossover films as well were released, namely “Alien vs. Predator” (2004) and “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007).

“Alien: Covenant” is scheduled to be released in the US on May 19. Reports state that the movie was initially set to be released in August, but Fox later decided to advance the release date by three months. In Australia, the movie will be released on May 18.