Alien Celebrates Anniversary With Terrifying New Short Films, Watch The Trailer

The commercial disappointment of 2017's Alien Covenant might have made the future of the classic sci-fi/horror series uncertain, but fans still have plenty to look forward to this year. It's now 40 years since the release of the original movie, and to mark this anniversary, Fox has produced a series of short Alien films.

The six shorts are set to screen at three comic conventions this month, and a trailer has now been released. The shorts are a result of a collaboration between Fox and crowdsourced studio Tongal, who choose six ideas from over 500 pitches submitted by fans.

All six take the classic claustrophobic deep space set-up of the first film. They include "Alone," in which an abandoned crewmember on a derelict hauler finds hidden cargo, "Containment," about four survivors trapped in an escape pod, and "Harvest," where a crew have just minutes to escape from a ship before it is destroyed. Check the trailer out below.

The first four shorts will screen at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle on March 15 and Chicago's C2E2 in Chicago on March 23, while the remaining two can be seen at WonderCon in Los Angeles on March 30. The Wondercon screenings will also be followed by a moderated panel with the filmmakers. For those not able to make the convention screenings, the films are set to be released weekly by IGN, starting on March 30.

These shorts will mark the final Alien releases by Fox. The deal between Disney and Fox which sees the former take over Fox's entertainment assets is set to be completed next week, meaning the Alien franchise joins the likes of Predator, Avatar, and the X-Men at Disney. Prior to the release of Covenant, director Ridley Scott was speaking about making another movie in the series, but it's now no longer clear when we'll see another Alien movie.