Because Alien: Covenant centers on a new ensemble of characters led by Katherine Waterston and Danny McBride, there has been question among fans about how exactly the upcoming film would go about addressing exactly what happened to Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw and Michael Fassbender's David. It seems that the answer to that querey has been revealed, with the blockbuster addressing the issue in viral video form, with a new prologue called The Crossing. Check it out below!
At the end of Prometheus, Elizabeth Shaw and David (sans body) were able to safely get away from the alien planet and started to make their way to the homeworld of the "Engineers" a.k.a. the creatures believed to have created humanity. As we learn in this prologue, the flight took many, many years, and Shaw took the time to repair David and give him a new body. After a while, it's decided that it would be best for Shaw to be put in hypersleep/stasis, and David is put in charge of the ship until they reach their destination. While we don't know if he actually wakes up his fellow crewmate when they do arrive -- seen at the end of the clip -- we do know that David has taken a lot of time to learn about the Engineers, including who they are and why they do what they do.
As far as treating exposition within a major movie franchise, this tactic taken by Alien: Covenant is an interesting one. Ridley Scott knows that audiences are going to be asking the question about what happened to Elizabeth Shaw and David in the years after Prometheus, and it's possible that there was no real elegant way to cover that territory within the narrative of his blockbuster. So what does he do? He makes what is essentially a short film that fills in the gaps. Admittedly this isn't entirely new territory for the director, as he also made viral material for Prometheus and The Martian, but this is a new context for the material and it will be interesting to see how it winds up influencing what we see in the movie.
Fans will be able to do that in just a few short weeks, as Alien: Covenant is now on the horizon. Being Alien Day, today is certainly a big day for the blockbuster, but it's not as substantial as May 19th -- which is the Friday that the new Ridley Scott film will be arriving in theaters nationwide. What do you think of this prologue? What do you think happened to Elizabeth Shaw after her time in stasis? Hit the comments section below and leave all of your thoughts, feelings and opinions.
