That Ridley Scott's Prometheus will somehow touch on the backstory of the giant creature known as the Space Jockey from Alien is no secret, at this point. Even if the director hadn't already confirmed as much, the film's official teaser trailer features distinct glimpses of what appear to be a very Jockey-like creature (click here for our complete Prometheus image gallery).

Similarly, two Jockey-like suits are also visible in the background of the latest image from Prometheus; in addition, some unofficial (and unconfirmed) model work for the film surfaced online recently, offering more insight into the nature of these extraterrestrial beings - or, at least, the structure of their helmets.

Prometheus follows a futuristic group of space explorers as they undertake a "thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world." On that non-Earth planet, the crew will (supposedly) not only uncover troubling information concerning the origins of humankind, but also encounter the Space Jockey race - or, at least, the race of alien that wears the skeletal body armor.

Check out Prometheus leading lady Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) as she explores some threatening and shadowy alien architecture, with two familiar bodies (costumes?) lingering in the background, in a new image posted by Hero Complex, below:

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prometheus movie image space jockeys

Cinemart recently received images from "an incredibly trustworthy person" who provided the site with photos of what appear to be early molds/models for the Jockey creatures' facial design (click here to check them out). The insider reiterated Scott's longtime claims that he's employing only the necessary amount of CGI in Prometheus, in order to bring the film's non-human characters and extraterrestrial settings to life - a task being overseen in part by Scott's frequent collaborator/production designer Arthur Max, who (in turn) received input from original Alien visual artist, H.R. Giger.

Here is how the site describes the (again, unconfirmed) Prometheus mask design:

The image does look a bit like a Space Jockey but with some differences… the jutted out jaw looks very Xenomorph style and the top part of the skull screams ‘facehugger’.

Now a similar design does feature in the trailer... but the one here is smaller, human-sized and designed specifically for an actor to wear and described as the face design for ‘the alien’. There’s that mysterious humanoid figure in the trailer at 0.44 seconds but it’s not clear enough to tell what its face looks like.

You can check out the mysterious "alien" in question, who's hanging around a very familiar room, in the Prometheus teaser trailer pic below:

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prometheus trailer image space jockey

So, yeah, the Space Jockey figures into the plot of Prometheus somehow. Who exactly the being wearing that suit is, what they want, where they come from, and why the actions of the eponymous ship's crew upset the new alien being enough so as to endanger the continued existence of humankind? Well, you'll have to just wait and see the actual movie for the answers to those questions.

Prometheus will be released in 2D and 3D theaters around the U.S. on June 8th, 2012.

Source: LA Times, Cinemart