New Alien: Covenant photos may hint at dates, or something a bit more mysterious

Fox has been releasing a steady flow of creepy and ominous Alien: Covenant photos ahead of the film’s first trailer.

The Alien Anthology Twitter account started posting photos from the set of Covenant on Dec. 19. The first photo, which can be seen below, features a group of unidentified soldiers. Some diehard Alien fans have pointed out that the soldiers are sporting the Colonial Marines shoulder lamps from Aliens.

Director Ridley Scott previously said that Covenant would indirectly tie into the the 1979 film, and would answer important questions about the alien, like who made it and where it came from. Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that he was amazed the question hadn’t been addressed in the numerous sequels that it spawned, but would take the opportunity to explore the origin of the alien in his prequels.

Since that photo was released, there have been four other photos published through the Alien Anthology account, all with an odd series of numbers attached to the top. Some have theorized that the numbers represent timestamps from when the photo was taken, and have begun sorting the photos to fit a chronological timeline.

“They all follow the structure of a time XX:XX, followed by a month, day and year XX-XX; 2104. The dates increase in time,” one fan wrote on Reddit. “The first was 22:05; 12-05; 2104. Military operation. The second was 13:01; 12-06; 2104. Arrival of survey team in cryo-stasis. The third is 18:56; 12-08; 2104. Exploration of the discovered alien structure. The first Alien was set in 2122, making this a prequel.”

The rest of the photos can be seen in the gallery below. The first trailer for the movie is rumored to be released on Dec. 24, but Fox hasn’t confirmed that date at this time.

Alien: Covenant will be released on May 19, 2017.

Grid View

• 20th Century Fox
• 20th Century Fox
• 20th Century Fox
• Twitter/AlienAnthology
• Twitter/AlienAnthology
• Twitter/AlienAnthology
• Twitter/AlienAnthology
• Twitter/AlienAnthology