On November 27, 2015, director Ridley Scott announced that this film would be the second (following Prometheus (2012)) in a new Alien trilogy that will take place closer to, and lead up to, the original Alien (1979) film. He later suggested that there may even be a fourth prequel film. However, the future of the series became uncertain after the purchase of 20th Century Fox by Disney in December 2017. The next film, tentatively titled 'Alien: Awakening', was set to enter preproduction that same month, but according to some sources, the project was shelved indefinitely. The commercial underperformance of Alien: Covenant as well as its lukewarm reception by critics and fans were named as reasons, although no official statements were made by Disney. In early 2019, however, the script called Alien: Awakening was actively being written, and Untitled Alien Prequel was officially in production as of 2022.
Unlike David, Walter speaks with an American accent. While this was no doubt done in the film to help distinguish the two characters for the audience, in-universe it could possibly be explained by the two synthetics different origins-David was a unique model created personally by Peter Weyland (who was British) as a son and successor, whereas Walter is a mass-produced commercial model.
Alien Covenant begins on December 5th, 2104, and ends a few weeks later in 2105. This is 17 years prior to Alien (1979), which takes place in 2122.
The terrace surrounded by cypress trees, where David looks upon the Engineers' city, was inspired by the series of paintings depicting the "Isle of the Dead" by 19th-century artist Arnold Böcklin. This was also a nod to Alien (1979) creator H.R. Giger, who had crafted his interpretation of the same paintings in his trademark bio-mechanical style, as a tribute to fellow Swiss Böcklin.
This movie contains a scene where a toy bird drinking water (named, aptly, a "drinky-bird") is visible. In the opening scene of Alien (1979), there is such a toy bird shown on board the Nostromo's bridge.
James Franco: as Captain Branson, husband of Daniels. He appears in several deleted scenes, but his screen time in the film itself was cut down to a cameo.