'Alien: Covenant' Cast May Add Danny McBride, Has 'Prometheus 2' Dumped All Jesus From Its Plot?

In addition to its many layers of confusing plot nonsense, Prometheus was also loaded down with a pretentious religious subtext.

Now word is out that Danny McBride will likely be cast in the Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant. McBride, known mainly for R-rated comedies in which he occasionally eats James Franco and humps Channing Tatum, does not fit the reverent vibe of the first Prometheus . Christian character Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is not returning for the sequel. Will Jesus and Christianity be entirely dropped from Prometheus 2 , Alien: Covenant?

The original script for Prometheus revealed that the Engineers, after creating humans (who are phenotypically distinguishable from Engineers despite having identical DNA), sent an emissary to check up on their creation. This emissary was Jesus and we killed him.

Now the Engineers want to kill us. But they also left us directions back to their top secret weapons facility where they accidentally blew themselves up with evolution goo, kickstarting the whole Prometheus fiasco.

But with reference to alien Jesus deleted from the final cut of Prometheus, we were instead left with a gaping hole at the center of the plot, plus a lot of discussions about one woman’s crucifix necklace.

So will Alien: Covenant refill that gaping Prometheus plot hole with religion once more?

Here’s what we know about the plot of Alien: Covenant, from the official blurb:

“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.”

With the rebranding as an Alien movie, director Ridley Scott has promised alien xenomorphs.

“They’re going to go to the planet where the Engineers came from, and come across the evolving creature that they had made. Why did they make it? Why would they make such a terrifying beast? It felt bio-mechanoid, it felt like a weapon. And so the movie will explain that, and reintroduce the Alien back into it,” Scott said in an interview with The Wrap.

“There was always this discussion: Is Alien, the character, the beast, played out or not?” Scott said. “We’ll have them all: egg, face-hugger, chest-burster, then the big boy.”

So it looks like all the Jesus and Engineer questions will largely be set aside in favor of more traditional Aliens action. Still, while we know the title Alien: Covenant comes from the name of the ship, it would also suggest theological questions are very much on the movie’s mind. A pact with God is often called a covenant. And even the previous working title, Alien: Paradise Lost , promised an investigation of the Engineer’s fall from grace.

Though all indications are that Alien: Covenant will be dropping a lot of the Jesus stuff from Prometheus, expect Christian or other religious themes to permeate the narrative.