Ridley Scott’s Prometheus set up a lot of mysteries for the Alien franchise, but Alien: Covenant outright ignored one of the biggest unanswered questions. Prometheus is largely considered the most confusing entry to the Alien franchise, but that’s not entirely its own fault. It did introduce some head-scratching concepts that weren’t entirely fleshed out until much later, such as Prometheus‘ black goo and the role of the Engineers in creating humanity. One of the biggest problems was that a lot of the things Prometheus introduced to Alien went ignored by its sequel, Covenant.

The recently released Alien: Romulus has begun rehabilitating Prometheus‘ image in the eyes of fans, especially in how it connected the black goo to the rest of the franchise. One thing Romulus – and the upcoming Romulus 2 sequel – can’t fix, however, is something that Covenant just abandoned completely. Prometheus introduced a new type of xenomorph in the form of the Deacon, yet instead of exploring its powers and abilities and showing it in horrifying action, Covenant omitted it from the sequel entirely.

The Alien Movies Never Showed What Happened To The Deacon From Prometheus

Prometheus Introduced A New Type Of Xenomorph & Covenant Completely Ignored It

At the end of Prometheus, the Alien prequel finally showed a xenomorph for the first time in the form of the Deacon. As soon as Prometheus introduced the new subspecies of xenomorph, however, it promptly forgot about the Deacon entirely, and Alien: Covenant never revisited the subject. The spinoff comic Prometheus: Fire and Stone – Omega did reveal the fate of the Deacon after the movie was over – it was supposedly overtaken by the black goo that created it and continued to grow and mutate until it was the size of a mountain – but the films never came back to it.

Additionally, the Alien prequels were really Ridley Scott’s brainchild, but he had nothing to do with Prometheus: Fire and Stone – Omega. The comic is helpful for fans who wanted to know what became of the Deacon, but it can hardly be considered a definitive canon source on par with the movies that aligns with whatever Ridley Scott was planning. The comic is basically a stopgap that only works in the absence of another sequel to Alien: Covenant, and we’ll likely never know what Scott actually wanted to do with the Deacon.

What Exactly Was The Deacon In Prometheus?

The Deacon Was A Product Of The Black Goo, The Trilobite, & The Engineer

Part of the reason Alien: Covenant may have abandoned the Deacon altogether is because of how complicated it is. The Deacon’s life cycle alone is enough to set one’s head spinning: David infected Charlie with the black goo, Charlie had Sєx with Shaw, Shaw gave “birth” to the Trilobite, the Trilobite impregnated the Engineer, and the Engineer spawned the Deacon. It’s also not clear how different the Deacon is from other types of xenomorphs; it has a long head that ends in a point instead of a dome, and it was about human-sized at birth, which implies it would have been mᴀssive as an adult.

Yet another mystery surrounding the Deacon is what Ridley Scott actually intended to do with it. Some of the deleted scenes for Prometheus gave special attention to the Deacon’s life cycle, as it extended the Engineer’s fight with Shaw and eventual impregnation by the Trilobite. The Deacon was also the last sH๏τ of Prometheus, which made it seem like a kicker for the next movie to explore, yet Covenant didn’t do anything with it. We don’t even know if the Deacon is specifically tied to the black goo, a regular xenomorph, or more closely related to David’s reverse engineering efforts.

Alien: Covenant Glossed Over A Lot Of Important Questions From Prometheus

Covenant Refused To Answer Questions About The Engineers, Xenomorphs, David, & How It All Tied Into Alien

The Deacon is probably the biggest unsolved mystery that Prometheus teased, but it’s far from the only such unanswered question. Alien: Covenant really glossed over a lot of Prometheus‘ more important plot points, and it only really bothered to answer the question of what happened to David and Shaw once they reached Paradise. Covenant never answered how an Engineer ship got to LV-426 in time for the original Alien, it never showed the true origin of the xenomorphs (beyond the cave paintings in Prometheus), and it never explained anything about the Engineers themselves. Prometheus was an intriguing start to a saga Covenant seemingly had no interest in continuing.

The only hope of finding answers to Ridley Scott’s prequel trilogy is by letting him finish it, and there’s one movie that could finally deliver on that hope. Scott is directing an upcoming Alien movie, and there’s a very good chance that he’ll revisit the story of David and his quest to create the perfect species. If that proves true, Scott could finally revisit the Deacon, the black goo, and the Engineers after eight full years, and his next Alien movie could do for Prometheus what Covenant never did: finish the story.