Billy Crudup to Join 'Alien Covenant' Cast, Playing 'Key Part' in 'Prometheus' Sequel

Ridley Scott is already on pre-production of the upcoming Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, and that means it's time for the newest additions to the sci-fi film's cast. Days after the surprising addition of Danny McBride to the film, it appears that Billy Crudup, no stranger to geek culture after playing Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen, is in talks to join the production in a "key part."

Deadline was the first to report on the Spotlight actor being added to Scott's growing Alien universe. For now, he's in "advanced talks" to join the film, which is the second in a planned trilogy set before the events of the first Alien movie.

Crudup has quite the busy schedule ahead it seems: he just officially joined the cast of Jackie, a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biopic that will star Academy Award winner Natalie Portman in the role of the iconic First Lady with Darren Aronofsky producing.

In any case, according to The Verge, that's not the only thing new in the Alien universe. The sequel, which was set for an October 2017 release date, has now been moved up a couple of months, to August 4, 2017.

It's part of a grander scheme of events for the Scott-created world that began in the 70's: the new Predator movie, which is still untitled, will come out on March 2, 2018. Fred Dekker is currently writing the film's screenplay alongside Iron Man 3 filmmaker, Shane Black, who's also directing the movie, which won't be a reboot but rather an "inventive sequel."

Fox is making adjustments to its biggest releases of the next few years. Gambit, the Channing Tatum movie where he plays an X-Men character, has been pushed back from its 2016 released to an unknown schedule; now, there are two Fox/Marvel movies scheduled for 2017 and 2018, one of which is most likely the sequel to this year's surprise hit Deadpool.