Ridley Scott has confirmed that the mysterious "Space Jockey" will indeed be one of the focal points on his new Alien prequels. Scott says that he was surprised that the Space Jockey element was left totally unexplored in ll subsequent alien movies and knows that fans have always wanted to know more about this mysterious creature.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the space jockey is the huge, calcified creature at the helm of the spacecraft on which the alien eggs (and later queen) were first found.
Although only briefly glimpsed the jockey will be central to the prequels in that we will get to see who they are and how their lives mix up with the alien species. Possibilities are that they are traders, carrying alien freight or a queen across space for some reason or they might even be trying to study the creatures. Either way something went wrong as a burst chest cavity can clearly be seen in Alien.
Surmising that the jockey itself fell victim to an alien, most likely the queen egg.
Ridley Scott also stated that the two prequels have enough story for prequels of their own and that they will be set hundreds of years before the events of the first film.
Bring it on.