Ridley Scott is back in the director's chair for his third Alien film - and he's described Covenant as a "joining up" of 2012's Prometheus and the 1979 original.

Scott told Digital Spy that Covenant - out May 19, 2017 - is a "multi-layered" tale "with some great characters".

"I saw Alien finally succumb after four films, then they also did Alien vs Predator, after which I thought, 'Uh-oh, that's it' - but then I waited a couple of years, I went back and decided to resurrect it," he explained.

20th Century Fox

Prometheus delved into the origins of the alien creatures - with Scott explaining that it was this story point that lured him back to the series.

"No-one actually asked where they came from in the three subsequent movies, which is kind of ridiculous," he said. "That's why good writers are good writers, because they'll ask a basic question like that and make that into a scenario.

"So we did Prometheus - that heaved it off the ground - and Covenant is a follow-through to Prometheus. So we now know who created this, and why, and the next one's a joining up of the storyline. It touches on mortality, immortality and the real question of who created us and why."

Jason LaVeris Getty Images

Scott told us that both Prometheus and Covenant were inspired by his own beliefs and speculation on the origins of the human race.

"We're not just a random biological accident," he insisted. "For you and I to be sitting here right now [by accident] would take trillions of correct decisions to be made randomly by nature, which of course is ridiculous.

"I think there's some kind of decision being made. I believe in a higher force - if we want to call it God, then it's God."

Alien: Covenant will star franchise newcomers Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir and James Franco, along with Prometheus returnees Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce.

The film follows the crew of the colony ship Covenant as they rediscover the "synthetic" David (Fassbender) - survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition - on what appears to be an uncharted paradise, but is really a dark and dangerous world.

Ridley Scott is executive producer on Taboo, starring Tom Hardy, beginning Saturday, January 7 at 9.15pm on BBC One.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment and tech news? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io