After The Martian, his highly successful 2015 film, the genre’s maestro Ridley Scott finally returns to where it all began with this newest chapter of the Alien canon. This year, audiences around the world will know the true meaning of cosmic terror as they watch a desperate crew of colonists struggle to survive being hunted by monstrous creatures in Alien: Covenant.

Last Christmas, sci-fi and horror aficionados got a present that left them on the edge of their seats, a Trailer showing the fallout of the events in 2012’s Prometheus, but before the Nostromo’s ill-fated voyage in 1979’s iconic Alien. It follows the colony ship Covenant and its unsuspecting crew heading for an oasis in the harsh, empty vastness of space – a habitable planet seemingly ripe for settlement. But this promising prospect has hidden dangers, something that the crew’s corporate overseers in Weyland-Yutani probably have an inkling of.

Unsurprisingly, their mission goes awry in the worst ways imaginable, and then some. Blood stains the ship’s corridors while gunshots echo in the distance. A distressed crewmember is locked in a chamber with a colleague who is writhing in agony as something inside him threatens to burst out. She is helpless as the inevitable takes its course and is left to fend for herself as a crewmate on the other side refuses to break quarantine and free her.

We are shown the world’s vast unearthly landscapes and its strangely beautiful yet treacherous ecosystem, such as polyp-like growths that release airborne pathogens when crushed underfoot, and the iconic petal-lipped egg that opens to reveal a familiar friend, the nightmarish facehugger eager to give the nearest explorer an embrace from hell.

When things get out of hand, the crew, or what’s left of it, takes up arms. A ship explodes, perhaps in an attempt to take their hunters out. Katherine Waterston’s character runs down the halls cradling a weapon, reminiscent of Ellen Ripley. The trailer also reveals the derelict remains of the Engineer vessel from Prometheus and a survivor from that previous failed expedition.

The trailer shows just enough, some familiar sights for those familiar with the  Alien franchise, making them salivate just like the titular monster, and more than a few unknowns to perplex new and old audiences alike. All in all, this glimpse promises audiences that they will see at least some of the xenomorph’s unsettling secrets revealed, perhaps along with the nature of the nightmarish organism’s makers, the enigmatic Engineers from Prometheus. Undoubtedly, more questions will be posed, as this new world with new creatures and new dangers bring with them mysteries that will add to the gut-wrenching suspense of the film and the greater Alien universe.

This May,  Alien: Covenant will take viewers on a non-stop sci-fi horror spectacle and whatever the fate of the explorers happens to be, as the android Ash said in Alien:

“I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies.”