James Franco’s Original Alien: Covenant Role (& Why He Was Cut)

James Franco’s tiny role in Alien: Covenant was supposed to be more meaningful – here’s why it was trimmed. Alien fans couldn’t have been more excited when Ridley Scott signed on to direct a prequel to his 1979 classic. Scott originally signed up for a script called Alien: Engineers, which found a team of scientists setting off to a distant planet to investigate the origins of life. Once there they run afoul of Facehuggers and Xenomorphs, in addition to learning more about the enigmatic Engineers who created life.

Alien: Engineers morphed into more of a spinoff during development, with rewrites turning it into Prometheus and removing all the Xenomorphs. Prometheus was met with a decidedly mixed response from critics and fans with the film exploring genuinely interesting concepts but hamstrung by logic and character faults. Scott’s Prometheus 2 would morph again into Alien: Covenant, a 2017 sequel that tried to balance the heady sci-fi of Scott’s prequel with the familiar tropes of the Alien series. Covenant was notable for bringing back the Xenomorph but the creature’s lackluster treatment, combined with another muddled screenplay, saw it become a box-office disappointment.

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There was meant to be another movie that followed Alien: Covenant which found Michael Fassbender’s android David travel to another planet to continue his twisted experiments, but that likely won’t happen now. Among the issues with Alien: Covenant was a lack of important connective tissue, such as the offscreen death of Prometheus lead Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace). This is despite the fact Rapace appeared in a promotional short for the sequel, as did James Franco as the Covenant’s original captain Jake Branson.

James Franco’s role in Alien: Covenant left many viewers confused, with his character burning to death in a cryopod within the first ten minutes. He’s briefly seen later in a video message to wife Daniels (Katherine Waterston), but Branson’s screentime amounts to less than a minute and barely any dialogue. Scott’s film expects audiences to sympathize with Daniels for her loss and her plan to fulfill Branson’s dream of building a cabin on Origae-6, but this lacks weight since he was barely a character in the story. This wasn’t always the case, with Branson being fleshed out a little further in earlier versions.

Scripted and shot for Alien: Covenant was a flashback where Daniels remembers her life on Earth with Branson. He wakes her with coffee as its snowing outside their New York apartment. He discusses plans for their log cabin, which establishes why it becomes so important to Daniels. While the scene itself is short, it at least establishes their relationship and gives some emotional heft to Branson’s grim death. Scott ultimately decided this scene wasn’t needed since the cabin is brought up in dialogue anyway.

Branson also featured in promotional short The Last Supper, with the crew getting together before heading to hypersleep. In addition to doing a better job establishing the various romances between the characters than the final edit does, it also gave James Franco a little more to do. Franco’s Alien: Covenant character was always intended as a cameo but the final movie’s rushed editing and lack of setup means Branson barely registers. Not only was Daniels’ supposed to mourn his loss but so was the entire crew, but considering the character has more screentime in deleted and promotional material, this loss is barely felt.

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