‘Alien: Covenant’ Casts ‘The Hateful Eight’ Star Demián Bichir, Presumably So He Can Die Horribly
You’ve got to giveRidley Scottcredit – he is second to none when it comes to rounding up impressive actors to torment in his films. 2012’sAlienprequelPrometheusmay have received mixed notices when it hit theaters, but its cast cannot be denied. Not every filmmaker can wrangle Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba and Guy Pearce and Patrick Wilson into one movie, and that’s before you get to the less famous but impressive performers, like Logan Marshall-Green and Sean Harris.
Alien: Covenantlooks to continue the trend of Scott leaving strong actors to the slaughter.Demián Bichir, last seen stealing scenes from beloved movie stars in Quentin Tarantino’sThe Hateful Eight, has joined the cast, which means we can probably look forward to seeing his bloody death scene in 2017.Deadlinereported Bichir’s casting and, as you probably guessed, the details are currently under lock and key. He joins an eclectic cast that already includes the returningMichael Fassbender(once again playing the morally slippery android David),the wonderfulKatherine Waterston(who’s so damn good in Paul Thomas Anderson’sInherent Vice),and, uh,Danny McBride(whose presence in this kind of movie is so left field that it can’t help but feel brilliant). Interestingly, Deadline reports that the cast also includesNoomi Rapace, but previous reports have indicated that her Dr. Elizabeth Shawwon’t be back for round two, despitePrometheus' cliffhanger ending.
Bichir is not especially well known in the United States, but he’s a major actor in Mexico with dozens of credits to his name. However, he played regular roles on shows likeWeedsandThe Bridge, as well as roles inThe HeatandSavages. He also memorably played Fidel Castro in Stephen Soderbergh’s two-partChe.
AlthoughAlien: Covenantis technically the sequel toPrometheus(which makes it the second prequel to the original 1979Alien), it’sstarting to feel like a bit of a soft reboot, taking place enough time after the previous film for some serious course correction. Naturally, it will also bethe first in a new trilogy, because films aren’t allowed to exist by themselves anymore. Ridley Scott himselfpromises an R-rating, because the last thing we need is the Alien series putting on kids' gloves again. RememberAlien vs. Predator? Of course you don’t. It never happened. Mass group hallucination. Gas leak. Very tragic. A bunch of people died.
However, we do have this 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.
Alien: Covenantopens onOctober 6, 2016. We don’t know about you, but I think Demián Bichir looks like he would make one helluva spaceship captain. Especially if he has a stoner pilot played by Danny McBride.
