She was the final surviving human in Prometheus, but in a surprise turn of events, director Ridley Scott has revealed that we will not now be picking up the story of Elizabeth Shaw, as played by Noomi Rapace, in Alien: Covenant after all.
We already knew that Katherine Waterston had been cast as the film's female lead, but last we heard, Rapace was still set to return, albeit in a reduced capacity. Now, however, Scott's response to a question about whether she'll be back is a flat "no", followed by, "we're still casting".
There are no further details, so it's possible that deals are still on the table. It may, on the other hand, be a case of clashing schedules, with Alien: Covenant set to go shortly and Rapace currently in pre-production for the title role in the Amy Winehouse biopic. It may even be that, rather than make a minor appearance in Covenant, the plucky Doctor Shaw is being kept back for a larger part in future _Alien_s. Scott, after all, is planning two more...
Covenant will not completely abandon Prometheus though, since Michael Fassbender's android David is still set for reassembly. Scott has also recently confirmed that, following the latter curveball, Convenant will be a full-on Alien movie. "There was always this discussion:" he said just before Christmas. "Is Alien, the character, the beast, played out or not?" Apparently not, since this time "We’ll have them all: egg, face-hugger, chest-burster, then the big boy."
Alien: Covenant is set to start shooting in Australia next month for a 2017 release.