Alien: Covenant is due in theaters in just a couple of months and will continue the story that began in Prometheus. Both of these are prequels to Ridley Scott's classic 1979 science-fiction/horror masterpiece Alien and will reveal the origin of the Xenomorph in that film.
There was a five-year production gap between Alien: Covenant and Prometheus but director Ridley Scott has promised the next film won't be such a long time coming. The filmmaker recently said the next Alien installment would likely be ready to go within a year's time and that it has already been written. Scott hopes to "crank out" as many Alien movies has he can for another six years.
In a recent interview with the director along with Covenant stars Katherine Waterston and Danny McBride over at Fandango, Scott was asked about the timeline in the series. His response seems to have revealed not only the name of the next film is Alien: Awakening but that it may not take place after Alien: Covenant at all. Here's what he let slip before Waterston cut him off:
It will go Prometheus, Awakening, Covenant.. fairly integral where this colonization ship is on the way....
While it seems pretty definitive that the next film is titled Alien: Awakening it is possible that is just a working title. What is more intriguing is that, up to this point, it’s been assumed that the order of prequels leading up to the events of the original Alien would proceed in a linear fashion. Scott also revealed just how many films after Covenant there are, saying:
There will be another one before we kind of literally and logically, clockwise, back into the rear back head of [the original] Alien... If this is successful, and then the next one, and then there will definitely be three more.
This sequence of events makes Awakening not only a prequel to Covenant but a sequel to Prometheus in a prequel series to Alien — which begins to get a bit confusing. Why Scott chose to go this route is uncertain but we do know that Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw from Prometheus's fate remains unknown. Awakening may fill in those gaps, with Scott also cryptically hinting that while Rapace is in Covenant as Shaw, she won't be "fully" returning in the film.
This is also the first time Scott has given what seems to be a definitive answer to just how many Alien prequels there will be. As it stands, if both Alien: Covenant and Alien: Awakening are successful we can expect another trilogy before the entire prequel series backs into the original film.
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Source: Fandango