Last month, director Ridley Scott shared a final photo from the set of Alien: Covenant as production wrapped in Australia. For those who have been following this release throughout the production process, today is quite significant, because exactly one year from today, on August 4, 2017, Alien: Covenant will be unleashed in theaters. To celebrate the official start of this release countdown, this highly-anticipated sequel's social media channels have sent out a brief video featuring an unidentified cast member who appears to be in a cryogenic sleep pod.

The video was sent out through the movie's Twitter and Facebook pages, although we don't learn too much about the story from this video. Since production wrapped last month, we're not sure when this brief video was taken, or who this unidentified cast member is. Many fans were hoping to get a first look at this movie at Comic-Con, but that didn't happen since 20th Century Fox skipped the convention entirely this year.

Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in Alien with Alien: Covenant, which hits theaters on August 4, 2017. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world -- whose sole inhabitant is the "synthetic" David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The story is reportedly set 10 years after the events of Prometheus.

Last month, a new report claimed that Prometheus star Noomi Rapace had arrived in Australia to start "a few weeks worth of scenes" on Alien: Covenant. There had previously been reports that her character, Elizabeth Shaw, the only human survivor of the Prometheus mission, had a small role in Alien: Covenant, although it was later reported that she was cut out of the movie entirely. Now it seems she's back in the movie, but we don't know how large or small her role will be.

Along with the Xenomorph, Ridley Scott has confirmed that iconic Alien creatures such as the Facehugger and Chestburster will be appearing in the sequel. The cast also includes Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo and Callie Hernandez. Ridley Scott is directing from a script by Jack Paglen, Michael Green and John Logan. Check out this brief video from Alien: Covenant, as we begin the 365-day countdown to its release starting today.