Intense new trailer debuts for Ridley Scott's 'Alien: Covenant'

There are plenty of highly anticipated blockbusters coming out in the next couple of months, but few as promising as Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant. Riding high off the Oscar-nominated success of The Martian, his 2015 sci-fi blast, Scott has the potential to resurrect the franchise that he created. But keep in mind- Scott has tried this once before. Prometheus was one of the biggest events of 2012, billed as Scott's return to sci-fi and the Alien universe. Unfortunately, most fans were disappointed by the film, which gave little answers and confused many viewers. It made a stellar $403 million worldwide on a $130 million budget, but despite that financial success, it still took Scott nearly five years to get around to making a sequel. Covenant is the middle chapter that bridges the gap between Prometheus and Alien, answering the questions of the prequel while establishing the plot threads of the 1979 original. Fox has been hyping the film up for the last several months, and there's a good chance that it emerges as one of the breakout movies of the summer. After the Christmas reveal of the red band trailer, Fox has debuted a second look at the film. Check it out below!

Alien: Covenant looks cool. It's a bad word, but that's the best that I can think of for what's on display in this trailer. So far, Fox has emphasized the blood, gore, and terrifying action in the marketing for this sequel/prequel, which is everything casual viewers are going to want to see. However, they haven't really shown us what fresh material Covenant will bring to the table. My interest in this movie centers around it connecting Prometheus and Alien, and while they drop a few hints in this trailer, most of the clip looks like a glorified remake of the original film. I have to think that Scott had a better reason to come back to the Alien franchise, and I'm counting on a nice mixture of the horror of Alien and the philosophical intensity of Prometheus. Many of the journalists who've seen extended clips and visited the set have focused on just how bloody and vicious this film is going to get, and as a fan of this series, that is incredibly exciting to me. As long as Scott creates empathetic characters and answers the questions of that frustratingly ambiguous 2012 film, I'll be happy. Hopefully he can pull it off.

With cast led by Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Callie Hernandez, and Demian Bichir, Alien: Covenant debuts on May 19.

Poster courtesy of 20th Century Fox