Prometheus is arguably the most controversial and polarizing entry in Ridley Scott’s beloved Alien franchise, with audiences constantly disagreeing about how neatly it fits into the rest of the series. The story follows a group of wealthy scientists who travel to the far reaches of the universe in search of a mysterious species who may be responsible for the creation of humanity, but their mission goes totally wrong when they discover how unwelcome they are in this ancient society. Although Prometheus was the highest-grossing Alien movie, there has been lots of debate about the necessity of its story.
Much of the controversy surrounding Prometheus pertains to its ending, regarding the retroactive changes that it makes to the rest of the franchise. It’s a much slower and more philosophical movie, ditching the high-stakes action and horror of Alien and Aliens for a more contemplative, drama-focused narrative about humanity and our place in the universe. While many audiences took issue with these major stylistic changes, another recent sequel in the Alien franchise has finally capitalized on the potential that Prometheus set in motion and made all the lore retcons worth it.
Alien: Romulus’ Black Goo & Offspring Twists Recontextualized Prometheus
The Alien Sequel Rewrites The Genetics Of Prometheus’ Engineers
The major twist in Alien’s prequel movies was that Michael Fᴀssbender’s antagonist David seemed to be responsible for the creation of the Xenomorphs; he uses the black goo found among the ruins of the Engineers’ society and uses it to create a perfect specimen. While this subplot fits neatly into the prequels’ commentary on humanity, evolution, and biology, it retroactively lessens the impact of the Xenomorphs in other movies. Knowing that Xenomorphs were just an experiment created by David was a huge disappointment that many fans opted to ignore.
However, Alien: Romulus offers the perfect twist – without erasing anything that Ridley Scott put forward in Prometheus, it manages to overcome this central criticism of the prequels. The movie essentially confirms that neither David nor the Engineers created the Xenomorphs, but rather reverse-engineered them from that black goo, which is genetically ᴀssociated with them. This suggests that the creatures existed before David’s experiments, which simply allowed him to recreate them. The existence of the Offspring is what finally confirms this, as it looks like a protogenic version of the Engineers.
For Years, Prometheus And Covenant Only Made The Alien Lore More Complicated
The Prequels Make Some Confusing Changes To The Timeline
The main problem with Prometheus is that it makes the existence of the Xenomorphs feel like a scientific experiment rather than the result of hundreds of years of refined evolution, which is what causes them to feel so frightening in Alien. The creatures appear in some form in every single Alien movie, and it’s the mystery behind their existence that makes them so captivating. Prometheus tends to over-explain certain aspects of the Xenomorph’s creation, which makes them feel less special in hindsight.
It’s a very minor adjustment to the franchise’s lore, but it removes this lingering criticism of the Xenomorphs being little more than science experiments.
Contrastingly, Alien: Romulus fixes this problem and makes the existence of the Xenomorphs feel more circular. Their genetic similarities to humanity and the Engineers suggests that they existed before both, and the Engineers merely used the black goo to refine the Xenomorph’s biology into humanity, which they expected to be another “perfect” being. When this turned out not to be the case, David continued their work and the events of Alien: Covenant happened. It’s a very minor adjustment to the franchise’s lore, but it removes this lingering criticism of the Xenomorphs being little more than science experiments.
Alien: Romulus Embracing Prometheus Made The Ridley Scott Prequels Better In Hindsight
The Sequel Gives A New Dimension To Prometheus And Alien: Covenant
Although many audiences called for Alien: Romulus to simply ignore the prequels and rewrite the timeline to fit more neatly with the original movies, Fede Álvarez’ sequel managed to capture the best of both worlds. It used the lore changes from Prometheus to retroactively explain why the prequels are important and disprove these criticisms that fans had repeatedly voiced. The Alien films are some of Ridley Scott’s best movies, and Romulus proves that it was unfair to claim the director didn’t understand his own fictional universe.
Additionally, Alien: Romulus gives the prequel movies a whole new layer of subtext with the knowledge that David didn’t strictly create the Xenomorphs for the first time. It adds to the character’s self-absorbed naivete that he was so incorrect about his scientific pursuits, believing himself to be a god-like creator, when in reality, he was merely distorting the evolution process. It fits perfectly with the prequels’ messages about religion and science, which Romulus clearly understands fully.
