'Alien: Covenant' Cast Adds 'Prometheus' Actress Noomi Rapace to Ridley Scott Sequel!

After months of rumors regarding Noomi Rapace's departure from the Alien franchise after starring in Prometheus, there's good news for all those who loved her Elizabeth Shaw character in the 2012 film: She's coming back next year! The Swedish actress has just joined the cast of the film's sequel, Alien: Covenant -- she was seen on set with the rest of the gang!

According to Deadline, the 36-year-old actress was spotted on the Australian set of Ridley Scott's Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, shooting a few weeks' worth of scenes in the character she originated in 2012. This is a surprise move regarding the film's casting, as for months it had been reported time and again that Rapace wouldn't be returning for the sequel.

Up until this point, it had been reported that the new film would see the new cast finding David (Michael Fassbender's robot character), the sole survivor of the Prometheus mission -- even though Elizabeth Shaw remained as well. It's unclear so far whether Rapace's return was planned all along or if the actress just recently agreed to be in the film. As Collider reports, she could be shooting a few flashback scenes, as it seems likely Rapace's character died before the events of Covenant.

Still, The Guardian seems quite unconvinced that there's too much planning behind Alien: Covenant, as the changing cast announcements seem to be disconnected from one another, even though the movie has been shooting in location for a couple of months.

The Prometheus trilogy is one of the ongoing projects reviving the Alien franchise. There's also a still-untitled Alien 5 film in the works by Neill Blomkamp (District 9), but it got delayed to give space to Scott's sequel.

Besides Rapace and Fassbender, other cast members in the film include Billy Crudup, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir and Carmen Ejogo.

"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," reads the synopsis. "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: Covenant will reach theaters on Aug. 4, 2017.