Alien: Covenant is the latest name for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel

If there’s two things we know about Ridley Scott right now, it’s that a) he’s really into making Prometheus sequels, and b) he’s really into changing his mind about titles. While he had previously said that the first sequel to his 2012 film would be Alien: Paradise Lost, 20th Century Fox has now announced the film will be called Alien: Covenant. (Scott himself let the news slip early to Indiewire.) According to the official synopsis, the film will follow the crew of a ship called Covenant, who find what they think is a mysterious, uncharted paradise. On the planet’s surface they discover there is only one inhabitant: the android David (Michael Fassbender).

Like Prometheus, it seems like this one is going to be pretty subtle.

The films have been the subject of some back-and-forth on the part of Scott. While the first Prometheus was obviously inspired by Scott’s 1979 classic Alien, depending on what year he was interviewed the film either was — or wasn’t — a direct prequel. With Covenant, everybody’s in agreement that the Prometheus trilogy will directly connect to the fate of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the crew of the Nostromo from the original Alien. It’s enough of a connection that Neill Blomkamp’s sequel has been put on hold until Scott’s sequels move forward, with Alien: Covenant landing in theaters on October 6th, 2017.