So, did you notice anything missing from the Alien: Covenant synopsis?

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been getting a steady stream of fresh information surrounding Ridley Scott’s controversial Prometheus sequel-prequel, Alien: Covenant. Last week, he announced that he had changed the title of the film from Paradise Lost to Covenant.

Now, in addition to the title announcement, the film’s official release date (October 6, 2017) and synopsis have been revealed —the latter of which raises questions about the fate of Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw, who survived the first instalment but has been inexplicably left out of the synopsis:

Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in ALIEN with ALIEN: COVENANT, the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with PROMETHEUS — and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

There’s no confirmation, of course, that Shaw will be left out of the prequel-sequel—indeed, Rapace has spoken openly about her presumed involvement in the film— but the character’s absence in the synopsis is indeed curious and will likely spark a wave of speculation and theories.

A commenter on HitFlix by the name of Dave has come up with a well-thought and totally plausible thesis as to why Shaw isn’t in the synopsis and why Scott has decided to call the film Alien: Covenant:

“Actually, I can see a few reasons. Shaw dies off-camera, which would leave me a bit unsatisfied; she shows up later as she is off doing detective work as David does, well, whatever he does; perhaps she is in hiding since the Engineers did kinda/sorta try to kill everybody and seem to hate humans. Who knows? But it would seem kind of weak for there to not be some sort of payoff with Shaw making it out alive and saving David from being a decapitated robot stuck on a planet nobody is likely to come to anytime soon.

The biblical “Covenent” angle could make sense. If the Engineers are the creators of humanity, it makes sense that the Garden of Eden and then Jesus stories are somewhat metaphorical versions of that history. Since part of the exploration to where Shaw & David went was to get answers, that seems like a good place to start; the who/what/when/where/why/how’s of the breaking of that covenant, possible redemption (hence the Jesus character, or the actual Jesus), and then onto the third movie. Which, it would make sense to me, could be Alien: Revelation(s). Just an absolute stab in the dark.”

Source: Squareyed