After originally planned to be the sequel to Prometheus, Ridley Scott's film dropped the name totally in favor of Alien: Covenant. We now know that it's main actress has also been removed from the film.
At the end of Prometheus, we saw few survivors make it off of the planet. One of those was Noomi Rapace who played Elizabeth Shaw. Flying away with Michael Fassbender, we were then treated with the first "real" appearance of the Alien we had been used to seeing in the other films. This follow up was scheduled to be the prequel to Alien showing what happened to Rapace and Fassbender after leaving the planet. This is not to be so, however, according to a recent interview with the Daily Mail. Director Ridley Scott stated that "We're still casting the main roles," and that Rapace was no longer in the film.
Michael Fassbender is still cast for the movie according to the interview, but now we are at a loss as to the direction the film will take. If Rapace simply replaced with a different actress? If not, does Fassbender pilot the ship himself as a robot? Allegedly, the film is about a crew aboard the ship named Covenant which believes they've discovered paradise. Of course, it's not the case and this "paradise" is only occupied by Fassbender.
There are many issues so far that need to be answered with Alien: Covenant, including if there are any other issues we're missing. What happened to Rapace's character? The xenomorph we get to see at the end of the film also won't be in this sequel, which is odd considering it's meant to be an actual prequel to the film about the alien that it's not including. Ughhh, my head hurts now.
We'll let you know more as we hear it. Alien: Covenant is set of a October 2017 release.