Although Prometheus was already a solid Alien prequel, the upcoming TV series Alien: Earth will make Ridley Scott’s blockbuster a truly pivotal part of the franchise’s story. Prometheus’ connection to the Alien franchise is both obvious and surprisingly convoluted. Many moments in director Ridley Scott’s ambitious 2012 blockbuster have clear links to his original 1979 sci-fi horror. Prometheus ends with a chestburster emerging from the corpse of an Engineer, while Alien’s opening sees Ripley and her crew encounter the same Engineer’s corpse and the same Xenomorph’s eggs while answering a distress call.

However, the very question of what an Engineer is and what they have to do with the Alien franchise’s timeline proves that Prometheus also mᴀssively complicated proceedings for the series. By Alien: Romulus’ ending, director Fede Alvarez managed to use his sequel to graft the lore of Prometheus onto the original Alien series. Although Alien: Romulus took place between Alien and Aliens, the movie did a better job of linking Prometheus’s story to those earlier hits than Scott’s own 2017 sequel, Alien: Covenant. That sequel was an enjoyable standalone sci-fi horror, but it only complicated the franchise’s story.

Alien: Earth Will Expand On Prometheus’ Weyland-Yutani Origin Story

Scott’s Divisive Prequel Explained The Corporation’s First Brush With Xenomorphs

Now, Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien TV series Alien: Earth will make Prometheus even more central to the story of the series. When Alien was released, the story of the franchise seemed to begin in 2122, with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and her crew of space truckers having the rotten luck of coming across a Xenomorph while traveling through space. Soon enough, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection all implied that the shadowy Weyland-Yutani Corporation knew about Xenomorphs before Alien took place, but never explicitly explained how or why.

Although the Alien Vs Predator movies offered a backstory for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s first encounter with Xenomorphs, viewers need not have gotten too attached to this version of events. After both Alien Vs Predator outings failed to impress critics and fans alike, Scott’s Prometheus retconned their events almost entirely. Prometheus depicted the CEO of Weyland-Yutani seeking out the Engineers years before the events of Alien, only for his crew to fall victim to a proto-Xenomorph. Now, Alien: Earth can fill in the blanks between Prometheus’ ending and Alien’s beginning, which were largely left unanswered by Alien: Covenant.

Prometheus’ Xenomorph Backstory Can Be Justified In Alien: Earth

The Franchise Needs Some Connective Tissue Between Prometheus and Alien

Alien: Earth will tell its own story, with the synopsis promising a plot about a mismatched group of soldiers facing off against a threat contained in a vessel that crash-lands on Earth. However, the series can still answer a lot of mysteries left unsolved by the series so far, and connect Prometheus to Alien in the process. Specifically, the question of how exactly much the Corporation knows about Xenomorphs after the deaths of Charles Weyland and Meredith Vickers, but before the events of Alien, can be addressed by the show.

Alien: Earth’s premise promises to paper over the cracks between Alien and Prometheus as Hawley’s show explores the history of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Alien: Earth will star Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, and Sydney Chandler as new characters who haven’t been seen in the movies before, but this doesn’t mean the series can’t clarify plot holes left open by Prometheus. The show can explain whether the Corporation came into possession of Xenomorphs before Alien, which could prove Ripley’s fatal journey may not have been an entirely innocent mistake.

Alien: Earth’s Unique Format Fixes Prometheus’ Biggest Problem

Scott’s Ambitious Prequel Had Too Much Plot

Perhaps the most promising element of Alien: Earth’s storytelling is its format. Alien: Earth is the franchise’s first TV show spinoff and, while this might mean that its action could be less fast-paced than the movies and their prequels, this is arguably a good thing. Scott’s prequel movies had too much backstory and not enough screen time to explain all their big additions to the franchise’s lore, which won’t be an issue for a long-form TV show. Hawley will have more time to delve deeper into the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s history with the Xenomorph, something Prometheus attempted but couldn’t complete.

Although Prometheus dropped a lot of hints about the broader story of the Alien series, it wasn’t until Alien: Romulus that viewers discovered what the Black Goo did, and even Alien: Covenant never entirely clarified whether David created the original Xenomorphs or not. Admittedly, Hawley told The Business podcast that he didn’t want to get bogged down in lore, but it still seems likely that his show will unavoidably end up expanding on the story of the prequels. As such, by the nature of its long-form storytelling, Alien: Earth can clarify Prometheus’s links to the Alien series.

Source: The Business (via KCRW)