New ‘Alien: Covenant’ Photo Marks the End of Filming

Yahoo Movies
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Ridley Scott and Katherine Waterston (Photo: Alien Anthology/Twitter)

The cast of James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens may be reuniting at Comic-Con later this week to reminisce about their classic extraterrestrial adventure, but original Alien director Ridley Scott, far from looking backwards, is instead proceeding apace into the future of the franchise. To mark the end of principal photography on his latest installment, he’s released a new snapshot from the set on Twitter.

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The new image from the production of Alien: Covenant shows Scott and star Katherine Waterston talking behind what appears to be some translucent shades. While no context for the shot is provided, it’s clear from Waterston’s short-cropped hair, tank-top, and firearm that (as a character named “Daniels”) she’ll be channeling the spirit of the series’ most famous heroine, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, a notion that was also suggested by an earlier photograph of the actress hiding along the wall of a dank, dark corridor.

Alien: Covenant will take place sometime after 2012’s Prometheus, with Waterston and her crew (which also includes Danny McBride) discovering a paradise-like planet — ostensibly the location where Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw was headed at the prior movie’s conclusion — whose only inhabitant is Michael Fassbender’s untrustworthy android David. Scott’s latest will be the first part of a prequel trilogy that ends right before the action of 1979’s original Alien begins, and the director is currently planning to helm all three features.

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While on-set shooting has ceased, there’s no doubt plenty of post-production work left to do on Alien: Covenant — and thus plenty of time for more tidbits to leak out from the film ahead of its August 4, 2017, release.

Ridley Scott and Co. talk the story of ‘Alien: Prometheus’ in a featurette: