One month out from production kicking off in Sydney, Australia, the ensemble cast for 20th Century Fox’s Alien: Covenant has grown by one today – relative newcomer Benjamin Rigby has boarded the sci-fi sequel.
Bound for the stars in the titular space vessel, Rigby will rubbing shoulders with Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Danny McBride, Jussie Smolett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo and Callie Hernandez. As expected, there’s no word on who Rigby will be playing. What we do know, however, is that Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw won’t be returning for the Prometheus follow-up, indicating that her scientist may have been killed in the intervening years between Scott’s 2012 thriller and Covenant.
Much as we anticipated, outside the anchor of Fassbender’s brooding android David, Alien: Covenant is set to introduce a brand new cast to Fox’s prized universe. Should this marked change of pace prove successful, Ridley Scott himself has laid out tentative plans for a brand new trilogy – one which will eventually dovetail with his 1979 horror masterpiece.
Helping to bridge that gap between past and presents will be composer Harry Gregson-Williams, with the early synopsis for Covenant describing Scott’s prequel-cum-sequel as so:
“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.”
Production will set up shop Down Under next month, ahead of Alien: Covenant launching into theaters on August 4, 2017.