Ridley Scott made his own sequel to Prometheus, but last year’s Alien: Romulus serves as a much more faithful and satisfying sequel than Scott’s own Alien: Covenant. Prometheus marked Scott’s long-awaited return to the Alien franchise more than three decades after he helmed the original 1979 masterpiece. Rather than giving audiences what they wanted with another chilling, atmospheric horror film set in space, Scott gave them what they weren’t expecting: a prequel detailing the xenomorphs’ origins with a haunting Biblical allegory.

Although Prometheus has since been reᴀssessed as an underrated gem, on its initial release in 2012, it divided the Alien fan base. There were some complaints that the movie wasn’t scary enough, that the characters made stupid decisions, and that the xenomorphs didn’t need an origin story, since they’re more effective as an inexplicable cosmic mystery. In response to these complaints, Scott relented and made his follow-up to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, a more traditional Alien movie: a haunted house in space.

Alien: Romulus Was A Better Sequel To Prometheus Than Alien: Covenant

Romulus Is More Interested In Explaining Prometheus’ Mysteries Than Covenant

While Alien: Covenant is technically the sequel to Prometheus, it’s more of a standalone Alien movie that jettisons most of Prometheus’ plot points. The ending of Prometheus set up a fascinating story with Elizabeth Shaw traveling to the Engineers’ homeworld to figure out why they want to destroy humanity. But Alien: Covenant gets rid of Shaw and follows a brand-new cast of space colonists as they answer a distress signal and run afoul of the xenos. It’s a decent Alien movie, but it’s pretty disappointing as a Prometheus sequel.

Fede Álvarez’s most recent effort, Alien: Romulus, was specifically conceived as a standalone Alien movie, and yet it serves as a more satisfying sequel to Prometheus than Covenant. Unlike Covenant, Romulus is actually interested in exploring the mysterious black goo and the complicated life cycle of Engineer-black goo-xeno-human DNA-Engineer. It made Prometheus make sense without having to retcon anything from it. The Engineer-like hybrid that appears in Alien: Romulus’ final act, “The Offspring,” is a perfect escalation of Prometheus’ biological enigmas.

Alien: Covenant Threw Away Everything That Made Prometheus Interesting

David Is The Only Interesting Component It Kept From Prometheus

Scott and his team ditched everything that made Prometheus interesting in creating Alien: Covenant. It was pretty clear that the studio wanted Covenant to be a more traditional Alien movie after Prometheus’ divisive reception. The result was a movie that was neither a Prometheus sequel nor a particularly strong standalone Alien film. Alien: Covenant does retain the best part of Prometheus — Michael Fᴀssbender’s duplicitous android character, David — but that was it.