Ridley Scott's Prometheus introduced the Engineers to the Alien mythology, a mysterious species of intergalactic travelers that gave rise to life on Earth. For his sequel, Ridley Scott had Michael Fassbender's David commit genocide against all of those Engineers living on Paradise. Yet it appears that David did not do his job well enough because the sequel to Alien: Covenant would reportedly see the return of the Engineers.
Alien: Covenant screenwriter John Logan either has or would have wrote the script for the sequel, tentatively titled Alien: Awakening. According to Empire (via HNE), John Logan's script may have dealt with the Engineers that survived the genocide coming after David for revenge. It seems that this story would have eventually taken the film to LV-426, the planet from Alien and Aliens, thus finally and fully connecting these prequels to the original franchise.
Such a story would explain how the Xenomorphs got to LV-426 in the first place. Perhaps in a skirmish with the Engineers, David's ship is shot down, landing on LV-426. There are also some theories that say that the Space Jockey from the first film is actually David after he has taken on a new body.
This is an interesting idea for a potential sequel, in that it would bring the story of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant full circle, while connecting both films to the original Alien films. Thematically it would also make some sense to see the Engineers again dealing with an existential threat from the creation of their creation. Yet the sequel to Alien: Covenant seems to be on hiatus at the moment.
Alien: Covenant made little more than half of what Prometheus did at the worldwide box office, putting a sequel film very much in doubt. That's without even factoring in the reality that the Alien franchise is a 20th Century Fox property and will soon belong to Disney once its purchase of those assets goes through sometime next year. It will be curious to see what Disney does with such a dark, adult property.
Given the longevity and awareness of the brand, it seems likely that the franchise will continue at some point and in some form. But the disappointment of Alien: Covenant at the box office means that it is anyone's guess whether or not such a continuation would still follow the story Ridley Scott had in mind.
Personally, I would like to see the return of the Engineers, but not necessarily just so they could go to war with David; there's no one to root for in that scenario. Prometheus had its problems with stupid characters, but it was at least dealing with compelling ideas. I wanted to see Shaw get to the Engineer's homeworld and learn about why they created humanity and then sought to destroy it. That's fascinating.
Ridley Scott seemed to be bored with that idea, basically killing Shaw and the Engineers before the film began, thus removing hope for answers to Prometheus' most compelling questions. He instead choose to show more Xenomorphs and tell a story about a homicidal A.I. Stories about artificial intelligence killing its creators are a dime a dozen, so to me that wasn't nearly as interesting as the bigger non-David stuff Prometheus was dealing with.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated on whatever happens with the Alien franchise moving forward. Check out our Holiday Movie Guide for all the blockbusters and awards contenders coming this holiday season.
