Movies
‘Alien: Covenant’ Takes Place 10 Years After ‘Prometheus’
Even though details have been slim, Ridley Scott has shared quite a bit of vague information about his Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, which is set to shoot early next year for release in 2017.
Scott revealed that the new film will have all the Alien goodies, from the egg to the face-hugger, chest-burster, and even “the big boy.” He also explained that the film will reveal a destroyed Engineer planet, and also shared plans for an expanded universe that will eventually bridge directly into his 1979 Alien.
This time details come from an unlikely source, Costume Designer Janty Yates, who spoke with Collider ahead of the release of The Martian, which she also worked on with Scott.
During the interview she reveals that Alien: Covenant takes “10 years in the future beyond Prometheus,” placing it around 2103/04.
“[It’s] not so much of a spacesuit movie,” explains Yates, adding that the android David, played by Michael Fassbender, will keep the same look from the first film. “There are two different spacesuits in it. We are only carrying on one look from Prometheus, which is with David.
She adds that “Ridley signed off on the next two looks” that they’ve “reinvented.”
Katherine Waterston recently landed the lead role in the film, which will also feature the return of Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw in some capacity.
With Alien: Covenant taking place 10 years later, one has to assume that either it’s going to take Shaw and David that long to reach the Engineers’ home planet, or the “new crew” will be in for a surprise when they cross paths with the android that has a serious God complex.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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