If you assumed the acid-blooded xenomorphs first seen in Alien were some kind of devious genetic experiment cooked up by the otherworldly homo sapiens ancestors known as “Engineers” introduced in Prometheus, then you’d be wrong. Ridley Scott’s upcoming prequel-sequel Alien: Covenant is meant to bridge the narrative gap between the director’s 2012’s prequel and the 1979 original. But Scott has given a new interview in the lead up to Covenant that seems to indicate that the Engineer-to-chestburster throughline isn’t as logical as it seems.
In Prometheus, the crew that lands on LV-223 and assumes that the abandoned moon was some kind of tactical development outpost for the Engineers, meaning the proto-humans created the xenomorphs as a highly specialized biological weapon to eradicate a planet’s population as they conquered worlds. Scott, however, begs to differ.
He told Collider:
“We’ve come back with a very simple idea. Who made them? No one ever asked that question. [Alien] was just about there it is; it exists. And this is what it is … So we’ve reinvented the idea of Alien, I think, which is that Covenant gets us a step closer to who and why was this thing designed to make human beings. And if you think it’s them [the Engineers], you’re dead wrong.”
He reiterated the shady xenomorph origins to the Sydney Morning Herald: “Prometheus was about who and why? [Covenant] is getting closer to who designed it and for what reason.”
So take all your assumptions about the Engineers being the smart guys who created the xenomorphs and throw that out the window. Prometheus is confusing enough, but this seems to corroborate their unspecified origins based on the scene in the 2012 movie showing the scientists discovering some sort of xenomorph temple that predated the Engineers.
We’re about to find out the real xenomorph origins when Covenant hits theaters May 19. But that’s not all. Scott also told the Sydney Morning Herald he’s got the Covenant sequel all set. “You’ve got to assume to a certain extent success and from that, you’d better be ready,” he told them. “You don’t want a two-year gap. So I’ll be ready to go again next year.”
