Ridley Scott is creating a newAlienmovie, and the film finally has a chance to solve some unanswered questions fromPrometheusandAlien: Covenant. The most recent entry in theAlienfranchise,Alien: Romulus,was a massive box office success. Though it was directed by Fede Álvarez,Romulus' success spurred severalupcomingAlienmovies and TV shows, and anotherAlienfilm directed by Ridley Scott was confirmed. Scott’s newAlienfilm, though there are still very few details available, will be the first he’s directed for the franchise sincePrometheusandAlien: Covenant, and it could finally end the trilogy he started in 2012.
PrometheusandAlien: Covenantboth serve as prequels to the originalAlienstarring Sigourney Weaver, and they were meant to tell the tale of how the xenomorphs got to LV-426 in the first place. Scott, however, never got a chance to finish his trilogy, and his thirdAlienprequel was quietly scrapped, seemingly never to be finished.PrometheusandCovenanthave, however, been reappraised by fans in the years since their releases, and it now seems that Scott’s nextAlienmovie could finally be the finale of his prequel trilogy. If it is, these 10 unanswered questions could finally be solved.
10Did David Create The Xenomorphs In Alien Canon?
Despite Being A Prequel, Prometheus & Covenant Never Explained How Xenomorphs Got To LV-426
David (Michael Fassbender) was the central character of bothPrometheusandAlien: Covenant, and he also served as the architect of the xenomorphs.Covenantrevealed that David was doing extensive experimentation and research on xenomorphs, hoping to turn them into the perfect species.What neitherPrometheusnorCovenantrevealed, however, is how the xenomorphs actually got to LV-426 in time for the originalAlien. David was on his way to Origae-6 just a few years earlier intheAlientimeline, so he couldn’t have put the xenomorphs there.
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Thespace jockey inAlienthat the crew of theNostromofound alongside the eggs had been fossilized, so they clearly didn’t come from David.What makes the origin of LV-426’s xenomorphs even more mysterious is the fact that the xenomorphs seemed to exist long before thePrometheusarrived at LV-223, and that David simply recreated them. There were murals of eggs, facehuggers, and fully-grown xenomorphs across the planet that were made long before humanity found them. The originalAlien’s xenomorphs remain a mystery.
9Who Were The Engineers In Prometheus, Really?
The Engineers' Motives, Culture, Origins, & More Remain Mysterious
Prometheuscentered around the mystery of the Engineers, the race of aliens that gave life to Earth and eventually humanity, yet it didn’t solve that mystery.Covenantlargely abandoned the Engineers in favor of David’s experimentation with xenomorph hybrids, and it left many of the largest questions about the progenitor species unanswered.Even over a decade afterPrometheus, almost nothing is known about Engineer society, culture, their origins, or why they created life across the universe. If it revisits the intelligent aliens, Ridley Scott’s newAlienmovie could finally reveal more about them.
Prometheus
Cast
Prometheus, released in 2012, is a science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. It follows a team of explorers as they uncover clues about humanity’s origins, embarking on a perilous interstellar expedition where they confront formidable challenges to secure the future of mankind.
Not only could Scott’s nextAlienmovie solve some of the mysteries surrounding the Engineers, it could also make bothPrometheusandCovenanteasier to understand. The film could solve some of the most confusing parts of each film, such as answeringwhy the Engineers were heading to Earthto destroy humanity and why the Last Engineer attacked David and the humans almost as soon as he woke up. With any luck, Ridley Scott’s movie could even solve some of the questions his prequel trilogy had originally promised to answer, like where the Engineers come from.
8Where Do The Engineers Come From If Planet 4 Wasn’t Their Homeworld?
Planet 4’s Aliens May Have Been Descendants Of Engineers, Not Actual Engineers
One of the biggest mysteries of the Engineers that bothPrometheusandCovenantrefused to solve was also the one Ridley Scott’s prequels promised to explore. At theend ofPrometheus, Shaw (Noomi Rapace) declared she wanted to go to the Engineers' homeworld, yet they never arrived.Planet 4, the setting of most ofAlien: Covenant, seemed to be one of the Engineers' colonies populated by one of the species they created, not their actual homeworld. There’s a lot of evidence to support the theory that David didn’t kill the Engineers inCovenant, such as their slightly different appearance and lack of technology.
The Creatures David Slaughtered In Alien: Covenant Weren’t Engineers - Theory Explained
Alien: Covenant saw the android David ruthlessly wipe out an entire community of Engineers, but one theory suggests they weren’t Engineers at all.
IfCovenantdidn’t take place on the Engineer homeworld, thenAlienhas never actually shown where the mysterious aliens come from.It’s safe to assume that a race as advanced as the Engineers would have a truly astounding home planet filled with unimaginable technology, which seems like the perfect setting for Ridley Scott’s newAlienmovie. Even if it doesn’t examine the Engineers' homeworld, though, the new film could explain more about the Engineers by taking a closer look at their colony planets and the other species besides humans that the Engineers created.
7Who Piloted The Circular Ship In Prometheus' Beginning?
The First Spaceship In Prometheus Is Clearly Not An Engineer Design
The opening scene ofPrometheusshowed an Engineer sacrificing himself to begin life on Earth, but it had another mystery in the background. The circular ship that took off as the Engineer drank the black goo was an oblong, smooth vessel. It clearly wasn’t a normal Engineer ship, as their spacecraft was much more ridged and appeared to be an almost biological design.The creators and pilots of the circular ship at the beginning ofPrometheusstill haven’t been identified, even though they may have been the creators of the Engineers.
Prometheus’ Humanoid Engineers & Opening Scene Explained
Prometheus primarily focused on the mysterious aliens known as Engineers, but their purpose, role, and technology require close examination.
It is possible that the circular ship was piloted by other Engineers, and that their warships just had a very different visual design than their exploratory vessels, but there seems to be more to the circular ship than that. The circular ship got quite a bit of attention at the start ofPrometheus, and it looked so visually distinct that it almost begged the audience to wonder who created it. Plus,ifAlienreveals that the Engineers were also created by a more intelligent power, it would both solve the mystery of their origins and fit perfectly withPrometheus' themes of creation.
6David’s Plan & When It Actually Started
How Many Of David’s Actions Were His Own Idea & How Many Were Weyland’s?
At some point inPrometheusandAlien: Covenant, David went rogue. He stopped obeying the commands of his human shipmates and superiors, and instead started following his own ambitions.It’s not clear, however, when exactly David started carrying out his plan, or what his plan even is. Many of the terrible things he did inPrometheus, from poisoning Holloway with the black goo to trying to force Shaw to birth the trilobyte, could have been David’s interpretation of Weyland’s order to “try harder.” It’s not clear how much he did at his creator’s behest, and how much he did for his own sick reasons.
It’s not clear how much David did at his creator’s behest, and how much he did for his own sick reasons.
Regardless of when David started working towards his own goals, he obviously leaned into them fully by the time ofAlien: Covenant. Though he was his own master at that point, David’s plan didn’t make much sense. He only said that he wanted to create a “perfect” organism, but he never revealed what he wanted to do with that species, or what he defined as perfection.Only Ridley Scott’s new movie can answer definitively what David actually wanted to do with the xenomorphs he was creating, and how his grand plan will either succeed or fail.
5Was David Breaking Down In Alien: Covenant?
David Couldn’t Remember Simple Facts An Android Should Know
After David began attacking the crew of theCovenant, he had a conversation with Walter that unearthed even more questions.David recited the poem “Ozymandias” several times inCovenant, but as Walter pointed out, he got the author of the poem wrong, saying it was written by Lord Byron when it was actually written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Walter then explained that “when one note is off, it eventually destroys the whole symphony.” Though it introduced the idea that David’s mind was breaking down, it never explained just how bad his mental faculties were or would get, or why it was happening in the first place.
Why Walter & David Have Different Accents In Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant paired Michael Fassbender’s android David with his “brother” Walter, and there’s a logical reason the two have different accents.
David’s insanity or mental breakdown almost surely would have been investigated in a sequel toAlien: Covenant, but as of now it remains a complete enigma. No one knows if David was simply going mad or if his hardware and software were actually malfunctioning. David was a very old model of android, so it’s possible he was breaking down like a machine. However,there’s no telling how bad his mind would be after another few years, and he had seven more years of isolation to endure before theCovenantreached Origae-6. Scott’sAlienmovie could show David becoming even more psychopathic and sadistic.
4What Really Happened To Shaw After Prometheus?
Shaw’s Fate Was Only Hinted At In Alien: Covenant
Dr. Elizabeth Shaw was the main protagonist and only human survivor ofPrometheus, but she suffered one of the movie’s worst fates. BetweenPrometheusandCovenant, Shaw was killed off-screen, and her lackluster ending hid quite a few details about her story. According to David, Shaw repaired him, got to see Planet 4 with him, disagreed with his experiments and research, and eventually died at his hand.Neither David norAlien: Covenant, however, explained why Shaw repaired the android, how she actually died, or what kinds of horrific experimentation David subjected her to.
Alien: What Really Happened To Elizabeth Shaw
Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw was once positioned to become the new lead of the Alien movie saga, but 2017’s Covenant would alter that plan.
While there are some early scripts and deleted scenes that dive into Shaw and David’s journey to Planet 4 and her death, nothing inAliencanon gives a satisfying explanation.Covenantdidn’t explain why she would completely repair David even after he tried to kill her, which seems like a crucial part of Shaw’s story.It also left quite a bit of good body horror untold, as David may well have experimented on Shaw while she was still alive. There are so many mysteries and so much untapped potential in Shaw’s story, and the nextAlienmovie may be able to use some of it.
3What Happened To Origae-6 After The Covenant Arrived?
David’s Experiments Must Have Laid Waste To The Covenant’s Destination
While there are plenty of loose threads fromPrometheusthat never got properly tied up, there are even more fromAlien: Covenant.One such thread was the fate of Origae-6, the final destination of theCovenantand its colonists. At the end ofAlien: Covenant, David was left on the ship by himself, with everyone frozen in hypersleep. That meant he was able to carry out his sick experiments with xenomorphs on an almost unlimited number of human test subjects, and he could have created some monstrous aliens. Origae-6 was in serious trouble, but the audience never found out just how many problems it would face.
Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant, directed by Ridley Scott, follows the crew of the colony ship Covenant as they discover an uncharted planet. Initially seeming like a paradise, the planet soon reveals dark secrets. Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, and Billy Crudup lead the cast in this science fiction horror film, which serves as a direct sequel to Prometheus and continues to explore the origins of the Alien species.
Based on David’s quest to create the perfect organism, it’s likely that he turned Origae-6 into a nightmare planet teeming with xenomorphs. Even if he didn’t experiment on all the colonists in the final seven years of the ship’s voyage, they would have soon died to David’s creations shortly after reaching the planet.An entire colony ship being wiped out must have drawn the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s attention, and they must have investigated David. There’s an entire story to be told there that would explain why Weyland-Yutani wanted the xenomorphs as biological weapons, but Ridley Scott never got the chance to tell it.
2What Happened To Daniels After Covenant?
What Experiments Did David Subject Daniels To After He Took Over?
Like Shaw before her, Daniels' (Katherine Waterston) fate afterAlien: Covenantremains a mystery. She was put into hypersleep just moments after realizing that David had killed Walter and taken his place, but her story seemingly ended there.Covenantalso implied that David had the same unhealthy obsession with Daniels that he did with Shaw, however, so it seems likeAlienshould have explored how he treated her in more depth. On top of that, David threatened to do the same experiments to Daniels that he did to Shaw, yet viewers never got to see them.
What Happened To David After Alien: Covenant
Michael Fassbender’s David 8 became a major villain in the Ridley Scott prequels, but what became of him following 2017’s Alien: Covenant?
Daniels' ultimate fate in theAlienuniverse is even more intriguing than Shaw’s simply by virtue of how open-ended her future is.David could do virtually anything he wanted to Daniels, from using her for experiments to forcing her to be his unnatural love interest or any other number of psychotic things. Ridley Scott’s nextAlienmovie could even use Daniels as a way to dive deeper into the relationship between humans and xenomorphs, and turn her into some sort of hybrid like Ripley’s clone inAlien: Resurrection. Perhaps the most exciting way Daniels could be used, however, is by connecting toAlien: Romulus.
1How Does Alien: Romulus Fit In With Prometheus & Covenant?
Romulus Only Hinted At A Connection To Ridley Scott’s Prequels
The final, and possibly most important, question that Ridley Scott’s newAlienmovie can answer is howPrometheusandCovenanttie intoAlien: Romulus. Though it came after both prequels,Romulusdidn’t have many references to Scott’s earlier films. One important way it connected toPrometheusandCovenant, however, was through its ending andAlien: Romulus' Offspring.Fede Álvarez said that the Offspring was possible because of the black goo introduced inPrometheus, though the specifics aren’t clear. Another movie could further explain how the goo ties into the xenomorphs, and what it can do to humans.
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
There are also a few unanswered questions fromRomulusthat Scott’s next movie could answer aside from the Offspring, mostly aboutPrometheus' black goo. InRomulus, the goo was capable of healing Kay before she gave birth to the Offspring, but inPrometheusit was mostly used as a bioweapon to destroy any life it came in contact with. There are several other mysteries fromRomulusthat Ridley Scott’s newAlienmovie could answer, once it is finally released.
Alien
The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.
