In an apparent effort to screw up every website’s search engine optimization – and possibly to make the similarity between the Alien movies and Halo video games even more obvious – Ridley Scott has once again renamed the sequel to his 2012 blockbuster Prometheus. What was once Prometheus 2 became Alien: Paradise Lost back in September. Now, less than two months later, the title has changed once again to Alien: Covenant.
It’s the latest move from 20th Century Fox to seem custom made to introduce Prometheus to a wider demographic. Alien: Paradise Lost dropped the charade that Prometheus was ever its own entity, and clarified that this prequel franchise was indeed and in no uncertain terms related to the original sci-fi/horror series. But it also had an overt reference to classic literature that obviously had to go. So instead we get Alien: Covenant, which somehow is supposed to be an improvement even though it technically translates to Alien: Legal Agreement.
Related: Don’t Hold Your Breath: Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Alien 5’ is on Hold
Since we live in an era in which fan speculation has replaced actual news (see: analyzing toy commercials for plot details from Star Wars), we can only imagine that Ridley Scott’s sequel to Prometheus will reveal the origin of the alien xenomorphs – as rumored – and that they will probably have been commissioned by another alien entity. Presumably the predators (or is it “Predators?” should that be capitalized?), who hunt them for sport. Or possibly just another big and sinister company like we see in practically every one of these Alien stories.
Or maybe it’s just a cool-sounding name that focus groups liked, because let’s not pretend that’s not how Hollywood works.
In any case, Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox have plenty of time to rename Prometheus 2 – sorry, Alien: Covenant – before the film’s eventual release on October 6, 2017. Might we suggest Alien: Arbitrage or Alien: Jurisprudence?
Image: 20th Century Fox
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
