Anticipation is incredibly high for director Ridley Scott’s upcoming sci-fi film Alien: Covenant and the movie doesn’t even come out for over a year. The level of excitement is partially because they’ve been doing a solid job of sharing tantalizing images from the set, but also, fans are mighty curious to see how Scott chooses to follow-up his Alien prequel Prometheus.

We know that Covenant has an almost entirely new cast, with Michael Fassbender serving as the bridge between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant by reprising his role as David, the sole survivor whom a new exploration crew—of the aptly named “Covenant” ship—stumble upon when they arrive on the seemingly deserted planet.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

But how will Covenant differ from Prometheus beyond the cast changes? Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Fassbender by phone in anticipation of his upcoming collaboration with The Place Beyond the Pines filmmaker Derek Cianfrance on the drama The Light Between Oceans, and during the course of their conversation Fassbender touched a bit on Covenant. The main difference this time around, it seems, is that Ridley Scott is aiming to really heighten the fright factor:

“This Alien is going to be… I’m very excited to see it and everybody in the film was saying this is a film that we all want to see. It’s much scarier than Prometheus but it’s got the same sort of scope of Prometheus. It’s kind of got more of the sort of thriller, imminent disaster feel that Alien had, so it’s kind of a beautiful meeting of both of those films. I’m really excited to see it, I think it’s gonna be super scary number one and then again with the massive scope of Prometheus… Once it starts and the ball starts rolling, it doesn’t let up. It’s really gonna bring chills to the cinema.”

While Prometheus was spooky in parts, it was mostly a film about curiosity and discovery. With Covenant, we already know what horrors await the crew of the Covenant, and so one imagines we might be in for something more tonally in line with Scott’s sci-fi classic Alien.

We’ll find out for certain when Alien: Covenant hits theaters August 4, 2017. In the meantime, you can catch Fassbender and Alicia Vikander in The Light Between Oceans starting September 2nd of this year.

For more on Alien: Covenant:

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Image via 20th Century Fox