In addition to writing the novelization of Alien: Covenant (check out our review of it here! In short, go buy it), we’ve known for a while that Alan Dean Foster would also be writing a prequel novel.
Thanks to the good folk over at Titan Books for providing us with the synopsis, we now have our first insight into what the prequel, titled Alien: Covenant – Origins, will have in store for us!
“As the colony ship Covenant prepares for launch, and the final members of the crew are chosen, a series of violent events reveal a conspiracy to sabotage the launch. Yet the perpetrators remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy. The threat reaches all the way up to Hideo Yutani—the head of the newly merged Weyland-Yutani Corporation—when his daughter is kidnapped. Is the conspiracy the product of corporate espionage, or is it something even more sinister?
While Captain Jacob Branson and his wife Daniels prepare the ship, Security chief Dan Lopé signs a key member of his team, and together they seek to stop the technologically advanced saboteurs before anyone else is killed, and the ship itself is destroyed in orbit.”
Alien: Covenant – Origins will feature Hideo Yutani as the head of the newly merged Weyland-Yutani corporation.
Alien vs. Predator Galaxy will chatting to Alan Dean Foster about his work on the novelization and the prequel later this week. We’ll also be revealing the cover art for Alien: Covenant – Origins so keep checking back in with us for more information on the novel! Alien: Covenant – Origins will be available for pre-order on Amazon shortly.
Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien: Covenant! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien fans on our forums!
Considering what the site says and what Amazon says, I reckon it's still September. Particularly considering the misprints in Bug Hunt...
Bottom right.
Searching for 'alien covenant' brings up 'Alien: Covenant 2 - The Official Prequel to the Blockbuster Film' with a release date of September 26.
If you scroll down a bit, the obligatory "Also available from Titan Books" list does give Origins a 2018 release date.
Curiously, it's listed under "The official movie novelizations".
I found this which says September 26 2017.
Amazon list Origins release date as September 26.
https://nook.barnesandnoble.com/products/9781783299089/sample?sourceEan=9781783299072
Looks like this prequel book has been delayed to 2018.
They could do the same as the recent comics, just pull some ship or planet with aliens in out of nowhere. Wouldn't be the first time they did that in EU, but in this case would probably be the goo creatures instead of aliens. Also the novel is a prequel to the other novel, not the movie, so the aliens weren't created by David in this continuity.
Well yeah, at this stage we're literally judging a book by its cover.
It's like the initial reactions to 'Alien: Out of the Shadows' before it came out. That plot synopsis really didn't do the book any favors, even if the end product made the best of what the author was given.
With Aliens: Bughunt we've seen that there are writers out there with a desire to use this universe as a canvas for stories. Personally I'd like to see more in that vein and for that to happen we need to show the suits and ties that there are fans who will buy into things that aren't quite as "Alien" as we may be used to. Also, A D Foster deserves some credit. I'm sure he'll make the best of the subject matter.
Personally I think they should use their time and money on new material that could expand the franchise and that would involve the creatures more, most prequels don't tend to add much since we already know how it will end and sometimes end up retconing stuff, still a story involving the 10 years of David on that planet would have been much better, we know how it ends but we could have gotten much more info on the aliens and the engineers...
A "prequel" novel I actually would like to see is one that explores the Ripley cloning project on the Auriga leading up to 'Alien Resurrection'. The genesis of the project, the 7 failed attempts (and whatever they took out of Ripley 7 that evidently wasn't good enough), I think there's a lot of room there for an interesting story and a good number of memorable characters (Wren, Gedimen, Perez).
"I'll be home for your eleventh birthdaaaaaaay!"
That's an awesome idea!! Be hilarious to read about Parker going for drinks with Brett and hearing Ridley say goodbye to Amanda!
'Origin' of things that happened before the Covenant leaves Earth.
Maybe. I'll need an interesting twist like that to make me really care at this point. I'll still buy it, but I'm not enthusiastic anymore. Why call it Origins? Was it originally supposed to be about David and Shaw but Ridley Alien 5-ed it and said no?
Everything cool about Alien, is Aliens. Ridley Scott is running away from that as if it were a. Xenomorph chasing him. He is all about securing his own legacy at this point. He already stated that the only films he likes in the series are his own. He doesn't seem to care about someone else's work even if it was superb. I get the sense that he is on the verge of throwing James Cameron's film under the bus. Marbles. Missing. Presumed lost.
this Covenant prequel novel. I never thought I'd say this but I have really lost faith in Ridley and the universe.
He keeps making major mistake after major mistake and worse yet, flip flopping.
Nothing he says can be trusted anymore it seems.
When he shot PROMETHEUS, he said he doesn't think he'll ever not shoot in 3D again and that it opens
up even dialog scenes and makes them better. When he shot PROMETHEUS, he had the sense to see
that the CGI Fifield looked like a cartoon so he opted for the real version. He also has constantly said that
CGI looks fake, explosions are too big to be believed, etc. - So what does he do?!?!
He shoots ALIEN COVENANT in 2D and with barely any actualy real creature f/x, just a bunch of cartoon
creatures hopping and dancing their way through another cgi shitfest.
SO... I am very much hoping to at least read a decent novel and get some of the old flavoring back
on my taste buds of what's actually good about the series. It seems to me that almost everyone but
Ridley is an ALIEN fan. Ridley, however, seems like he's trying to erase his legacy. Everything cool
about ALIEN he runs from, fearing repeating himself or whatever, instead of just doing what works.
Covenant started with a flashback. The next potential film could too. David's dream, perhaps, on board the Covenant.
But I want to know exactly what happened. What they gave us in the film isn't enough for me.
They flew to Planet 4 then David killed her.
It is a story that might be better suited for a comic/graphic novel, anyways, where we can really see everything weird and strange that transpires in their voyage.
I'm still looking forward to this! I liked the crew of the Covenant so I think I'll enjoy this story.
Scott originally said that the next film would be a prequel to Alien: Covenant called Awakening. A lot of people assumed that the story would naturally follow the events with David and Shaw before the Covenant arrived. In a later interview Riddles said that Awakening was to have been the title of Blomkamp's stalled project.
So yeah, lots of confusion regarding this.
Still bummed that this isn't a Shaw/David but at least that means that that story remains open to being told in a more visual form (if not a film, perhaps a comic/graphic novel).
Was really looking forward to this after reading the Covenant novel -but I'll pass on this :-
Sounds interesting. Good to be getting some backstory on Daniels and Branson, the Covenant launch and Yutani. I'll be reading this for sure.
Would like to know what happened with Shaw and David as well, but there are enough clues in the movie, they don't need to spell it out.
It can only get worse by having David's and Shaw's story in it via small but highly unsatisfying little chapters loosely connected to the main story.
This way they can argue that their journey we all want to know so much more about has been discussed already and there is absolutely no need to get back to this and be done with Covenant, if there shouldn't be a sequel due to the mediocre box office earnings.
No-one really knows, I'm afraid. We've not had any straight forward information on what Awakening is yet.
I can understand why folk are disappointed - we expected the novel to fill in the gaps about David and Shaw. Maybe they still will? Who knows. But it's ADF and he's writing something different in the Alien-verse. I'm 100% giving it a go.
Still hope Shaw and David's tale is still told some day though. Maybe as a comic.