Alien: Covenant trailer gives the Xenomorph its time to shine

It may be the follow-up to 2012's Prometheus - but this trailer suggests it will feel far more like a direct prequel to Alien

The Xenomorph's out of the bag.

Alien: Covenant's marketing has so far played it pretty coy with the impending terrors to be unleashed on audiences, relying on the traditional facehugger attack and a few brief glimpses of its full-grown iteration.

Yet, this latest trailer puts the full goods on display, ending in a full-blown Xenomorph attack on one of the Covenant crew's ships - with the creature finding a use for its sledgehammer-shaped head by smashing it repeatedly into its glass windows.

It's a little strange to see a full CGI Xenomorph rampaging about, but the trailers have so far ramped up such a sense of terror and chaos that the film very much promises to walk in the footsteps of its 1979 original.

Even star Michael Fassbender has promised the film will be "super scary"; here returning alongside Prometheus cast members Noomi Rapace and Guy Pearce, plus some new faces: Fantastic Beasts' Katherine Waterston, Demian Bichir, Billy Crudup, and Danny McBride.

The film sees the crew of the colony ship Covenant discover what they believe to be an uncharted paradise while journeying to a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy; but they soon come to understand this new world is actually a dark, threatening place, inhabited only by the 'synthetic' David (Fassbender), a survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

A short prologue to the film also introduced James Franco's character, Captain Branson, though he's only believed to be in about ten minutes of the film.

Alien: Covenant will be released in the UK on 12 May.