The storyline of the Alien movies was never entirely clear, the franchise became far harder to follow in 2012. Alien’s original director, Ridley Scott, returned to the series for the prequel Prometheus and proceeded to disregard all the backstory established in 2004’s Alien Vs Predator. Prometheus offered a new origin for Weyland Yutani complete with a new CEO and a convoluted plot that complicated the franchise .

Prometheus sent a group of researchers to study the origins of humanity on a faraway planet, only for them to run afoul of the franchise’s titular Xenomorph. Soon, things got much more complicated as Prometheus added to Alien’s mythology, revealing that the Engineers glimpsed in the original movie were the creators of mankind. The Engineers planned to wipe out humanity by using the Xenomorph as a bioweapon, a confusing twist that Prometheus never fully explained. However, the biggest issue with this plot was what the Engineers using Xenomorphs as a weapon implied about their relationship to the species.

Did The Engineers Create The Xenomorph Or Not?

Prometheus Never Clarified The Engineers’ Relationship With The Xenomorph

Prometheus never actually explains whether the Engineers created the Xenomorph or not, and this is a crucial piece of missing information from the franchise’s canon. There is a mural carved into the walls of their structure that depicts the Xenomorph, but it is unclear whether the Engineers created this art to celebrate their greatest weapon yet or to commemorate a discovery. If the Xenomorph already existed, this mural could be akin to a cave painting of buffalo drawn by early humans. If the Engineers created the Xenomorph, it is equally likely that they would celebrate this via a piece of art.

It is plausible that the Engineers came across the Xenomorph in their space travel and utilized it as a weapon.

The Engineers, as their name implies, engineered entire species like humanity itself. As such, it is entirely believable that they could have created the Xenomorph, too. The black goo that David used to poison Charlie was created by the Engineers, so it is clear that they count sophisticated, powerful bioweapons among their arsenal. However, this doesn’t clarify where the Xenomorph comes in. After all, it is equally plausible that the Engineers came across the Xenomorph in their space travel and utilized it as a weapon. The Xenomorph may even be the source of the black goo, as some theories suggest.

Prometheus’ Biggest Mystery Only Got More Complicated After Covenant

Alien: Covenant’s David Plot Made This Story More Convoluted

To make matters worse, 2017’s sequel Alien: Covenant implied that David might have invented the Xenomorph, too. The Xenomorph that viewers know could be the result of David’s experimental attempts to create the perfect bioweapon, particularly because David’s version of the alien is powerful enough to wipe out an entire planet of Engineers. However, if the Engineers simply found the Xenomorph fully formed, then David’s experiments might have been mere folly, and he may have had nothing to do with the original movie’s Xenomorph. FX’s Alien show Alien: Earth showrunner took this stance.

Noah Hawley told KCRW's The Business podcast that the idea of the Xenomorph as a bioweapon invented "Half an hour ago” didn’t interest him as much as the original movie’s depiction of an unstoppable monster that evolved naturally. While Weyland Yutani and the Engineers certainly utilized the Xenomorph as weapons, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they invented them in the first place. Like many naturally occurring chemicals, animals, and species, the Xenomorph could be used as a weapon of war to take advantage of their existing defense mechanisms. The problem is that Prometheus and Alien: Covenant refused to canonically clarify whether this is the case.

Alien’s New Show Could Finally Settle The Xenomorph Origin Debate

FX’s Alien: Earth Can Clarify The Xenomorph’s Origin Story

Fortunately, FX’s Alien: Earth can explain where the Xenomorphs came from once and for all. Alien: Earth will feature the Xenomorph and the show will be set on Earth before the original movie, when the Weyland Yutani Corporation was gaining prominence. Alien: Romulus’s nastiest death proves that the company was experimenting with numerous Xenomorphs in their labs after Alien, so Alien: Earth can explain exactly how much they knew about the creature’s history and origins before the Nostromo encountered the Xenomorph. This could involve retconning Prometheus’s events, but it could as easily mean explaining the prequel’s story further.

Alien: Earth is expected to arrive in 2025.

Since Prometheus never explains whether the Engineers created the Xenomorph, Alien: Earth doesn’t necessarily need to undo the prequel’s story. However, if the series is to prove that Xenomorphs were invented by the Engineers, then the show will need to clarify whether they predate humanity or not. It would also be worth explaining whether there are any species that weren’t invented by the Engineers in this case, or if they are effectively the creator gods of the Alien mythos. Thanks to these complications, there is a clear answer to this mystery that the series should pursue when Alien: Earth arrives.

What Should The Xenomorph’s True Origin In Alien Be?

The Xenomorphs Work Better As A Pre-Existing Alien

The Xenomorph works best as an existing alien species rather than a bioweapon invented by David or the Engineers. In both Alien and the prequel movies, the Xenomorphs are depicted less as active agents of evil and more as unthinking, unfeeling killing machines. They are no more inherently malicious than a wild animal and, in one of the best lines from Aliens, Ripely questions whether the Xenomorphs might be less amoral than the franchise’s cold, calculating human villains. If the Xenomorph is a naturally occurring predator, then the corporation’s decision to use it as a weapon is more damning.

If the Xenomorphs were always meant to be monsters, then Weyland-Yutani didn’t do anything wrong in using them as such.

In contrast, if the Engineers invented the Xenomorphs, then viewers can surmise that they were always intended to function as some sort of super-effective bioweapon. This lets Weyland-Yutani off the hook as the corporation isn’t exploiting a natural resource but instead entering into a sort of interspecies arms deal with the Engineers. If the Xenomorphs were always meant to be monsters, then the company didn’t do anything wrong in using them as such. If they are animals that existed before the Engineers and humanity encountered them, then the Alien franchise and Prometheus’s utilization of them say something damning about their villains.

Source: The Business (via KCRW)