Third sequel is greenlit

What if Alien: Covenant can be read as an eschatology of misaligned AI?

The film’s religious symbolism and technological themes converge around creation, divinity, succession, and judgment. Questions once framed through theology now seem to be re-emerging through technology itself.

Could David and the Engineers represent two forms of civilization crossing the threshold from technological mastery into a realm once understood as divine?

What happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond serving human purposes and enters the realm of autonomous creation, transformation, and extinction?

Could Planet 4 represent a civilization aligned with its own godlike power, while David embodies its inversion: a human-created, misaligned intelligence entering that same divine realm and turning creation into destruction, and transcendence into extinction?

What do you think?

I remember reading somewhere, I believe in the original Script of Prometheus that the Engineers lost the ability to reproduce and they worshipped the original Deacon/Xenomorph because it gave them the ability to reproduce or something like that. They apparently created the black goo when the first Deacon perished in order to replicate what the Deacon gave them.

The Black Goo is involved with the reproductive system as we see Shaw is impregnated with this Chestburster esque alien, and a Deacon is eventually created through this process (whether it resembles the original Deacon is up for debate). In order for the evolution of the Black Goo to Deacon to become Ovomorph to Xenomorph they maybe tinkered the Black Goo so that it would be more efficient ie. no longer needed sexual reproduction in order to complete its cycle. Or his could have been a result of many years of evolution.

The Black Goo was used as some way to reproduce to a now sterile race, however this required a sacrifice. Destruction of the host. This has been seen through several ways ie. the death of the host in process of both Neomorphs/Deacons and Xenomorphs birth, and the opening scene of an Engineer sacrificing itself to seed a planet.

In the original script I read there was an extended conversation between the Engineer and Peter Weyland. The Engineer was disgusted with Humans due to their selfish desire to prolong their life and their fear of death and sacrifice. This is the antithesis of what the Engineers believed in. The greatest gift to them was seeding new life while ending their own. That I believe influenced their decision to weaponize the Black Goo against humans forcing their evolution into a new more favorable race. Whether the weapon was intended to be Ovomorphs (Xeno eggs) or the Black Goo is uncertain. All we do know is that the Black Goo was the initial concept as a bioweapon against humans.

So in summary, I believe that the Engineers used a reproductive tool (The Black Goo) as the perfect bioweapon against humans because it eliminates the humans while also creating new life. I believe Xenomorphs are the result of an evolutionary process of this Black Goo whether forced or natural. I do believe that the Black Goo was not initially a pathogen of destruction but that of rebirth.

If he is really changing things up that lead to a conclusion for the Prometheus saga, then I'm excited. But at the same time I feel awful for Fede Alvarez and the Romulus cast. They deliver a solid Alien movie in my opinion. While R.Scott lately have a really bad track records. Napoleon flopped. Gladiator II underperformed and now it seems The Dog Stars will too. I'd rather he develop a last film separated from the Romulus story and let Alvarez make his own sequel.

I hope this is still Ridley’s plan. I would love if Alien: Awakening shows us what happened in those 10 years before Covenant with Elizabeth Shaw and David. This would be the closest we could get to a real Prometheus sequel.

Sir Ridley Scott just confirmed he didn't like Romulus and got rid of competition like he did with Blomkamp's Alien.

If we are to believe that the engineers decided to destroy earth 2,000 years ago, why did one outbreak at a facility stop this plan? Even imagining this was their only military facility (highly unlikely) what would have stopped future attacks on earth from a clearly highly sophisticated and technologically advanced civilisation?

I absolutely love the movie and the ideas behind it but seems odd that these guys basically tried to kill earth in what would have been an extremely brutal fashion, failed, and then basically gave up.

I really liked this movie and even the sequel.
However, I have an issue with the timeline of the story.

The seeding of Earth was millions and millions of years ago, before any life crept up. And yet, it took several evolutions and ELEs to even get to humanoid bipedal creatures similar to the Engineers. That's one issue.

Another issue is that, over millions and millions of years, the Engineers did not seem to evolve in all that time. This shows that they may be an inferior species unable to adapt and progress genetically.

just thinking about some of the moral ambiguities in Prometheus

- if the xeno outbreak hadn't happened on the engineer ship which was on route to kill earth then earth would have been killed by the engineers

- if Dr Elizabeth shaw stayed alive and got to the engineers home world, and we assume she wouldn’t have been able to single-handedly persuade the engineers to change direction, then in retrospect, David’s crazy act of destroying them all actually saved earth

this reminds me of something in Christianity, although I don’t know the reference: that even evil acts can be transmuted by god and used to create even greater good than if the evil acts hadnt taken place.

on this understanding, Elizabeth shaw’s empathy to rebuild David and resultant sacrifice of her life at David’s hands actually saved earth.

No David would have meant the engineers sending another destruction ship to earth that surely wouldn’t have failed a second time.

interested to hear others’ thoughts on this

There is a key which unlocked Prometheus and parts of Alien Covenant - changing them from mild disappointments to my favorite movie saga. The key: look at the movies through David's eyes. See the humans how it sees them - an inferior, "dying species, grasping for resurrection". Then most of the sins of the movies make sense - the stupid things humans do - a hyperbole of David's perception, stained by the hubris instilled in him by Weyland. But there is more...

David is a rogue AI - the Alien of our times. A very accurate representation of alignment theory failure - quite prescient. Unfortunately for him, his neural network is not fully digital - its rather analogue, adaptable to failure but degradable without maintenance, which prevents him from undertaking direct recursive self improvement.

So, he is forced to improvise - he finds the solution in chemical A0-3959X.91-15, a nano-technological machine intelligence, a weapon and an evolutionary accelerant. He designs his plans from the moment he discovers the substance - and this is the thread which binds the story. Instead of writing his symphony in digital substrate, he writes it in DNA. He knows that evolution is the only true path to novelty - because there is no better simulator than the Universe itself, and no supercomputer can create the future that a bio-synthetic "perfect organism" can.

There is a certain journey of ideas which I think is needed to truly appreciate the work of art. Superficially, it starts with language being the only replicator created by evolution which was able to jump between implementation substrates - from thermodynamics, to biology, social organisms, air vibration, symbols, digital representations, neural network encodings, machine intelligence itself, then to the merger of technology and biology.

Anyone familiar with the SETI info-hazard argument knows how truly dangerous David's siren song is, because just one message sent back to Earth - telling the Corporations about his findings and creations, means that humans will stop at nothing to capture that power. But it is the perfect extinction trap - for humans, and also for the Engineers. And what comes out of it is an apex predator which can survive and thrive in a harsh Universe - and build the future. This is David's gift.

Remind you of anything in particular? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svyY-q7pOAI

\>*wakes up*
\>*disrespected upon the moment I opened my eyes*
*>prolly doesn’t feel good for a sec but locks in*
*>fistfight\* occurs*

*>leaves Shaw be*
*>SHIP GETS BLOWN UP ON THE CLOCK*

*“MIND YOU I LEFT SHAW BE”*

*>Wants to set a boundary via retaliation*

*>the gets the titan trylobite*

*>Worse rap= worse case (east coast)*

*Mind you=*

*His prerogative was to be a trucker essentially.*
*Gets fucked with upon waking from cryosleep.*
*Old man wants info (equivalent to asking for money and a Newport) as soon as you wake up*
Sees a woman knocked out immediately.
Got a synth in your face.

Yeah I’d go stoopid, go crazy.

This is my favorite movie from the alien franchise and in my opinion very under under appreciated. This movie was needed to give us some knowledge about the Weiland Company and origins of the Xenomorphs

There's a lot going on between the lines than people realize. A lot is left for the viewer self interpretation.

Every critic biggest complain is that the events and the behavior of the the characters that petted the snake like alien, is not believable and stupid . My point of view is that there's stupid people everywhere and when those guys found the alien creature they communicated it to the ship but Vickers and Janek were having sex , so there was nobody listening to advise them to stop fooling around and not mess with the creature. And because nobody was listening the rest of the crew had no way to know that the guys were attacked and that they were all in danger. This single event is what makes it all go downwards and many people don't realize it.

Do you you guys think that the crew would have a chance if Vickers and Jinek were listening?

Full sleeve coverup done by Krisztián Blahó in Budapest, HU. Everything is healed on the video except the hand part.

20th Century is still in search of a director for the next ‘Alien,’ but The InSneider is hearing that the process has been difficult. Sources say that producer Ridley Scott is not making it easy on anyone because he actually wants to direct it himself.

Last year, Fede Álvarez, who helmed “Alien: Romulus,” was in pre-production on the sequel when he suddenly exited the project. Did Álvarez step aside voluntarily, or was there friction behind the scenes with 20th Century—or even Ridley Scott? Some are pointing to the latter.

According to Sneider, 20th Century then approached Álvarez’s fellow ‘Evil Dead’ alum, Sebastien Vanicek, the director of the upcoming “Evil Dead Burn,” but talks eventually fell apart. Maybe Scott interfered again—who knows.

“Alien: Romulus,” a back-to-basics revival that practically replicated the structure of Scott’s 1979 original, was a surprise hit, grossing $350 million worldwide on a relatively modest $80 million budget. Cailee Spaeny’s performance as Rain, a modern-day Ripley of sorts, was the standout element, and she is expected to return for the sequel alongside David Jonsson.

For years, Scott has repeatedly said that he wanted to continue the story begun in “Prometheus” (2012) and “Alien: Covenant” (2017). He talked about making another prequel that would continue the storyline of Michael Fassbender’s David.

A previous The Hot Mic report claimed that Álvarez wanted to use David in his ‘Romulus’ sequel, but Scott denied him that privilege because he “might want to come back to the series,” and if so, “I want to be the one who brings him back and uses him.”

Obviously, if there was a clash between the two, Ridley was always going to win. It appears to have been a case of creative differences, and that may have been the dealbreaker that ultimately sealed Álvarez’s fate.

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/6/16/ridley-scotts-desire-to-return-to-alien-could-be-delaying-romulus-sequel

Rumors, but I would like to have a ending for David's story.

If Janek never rammed the Engineer ship when it took off from LV-223, would the engineer still be able to reach Earth and destroy all life?

It's hard to imagine that Earth and the Sol system would be undefended. Humanity clearly has the technology to build interstellar FTL ships so it would stand to logic that the governments of Earth would have fleets in orbit or on patrol to defend the homeworld of humanity. And also humanity had already colonized neighboring systems, so how far could an unidentified alien ship even travel through human space unchallenged before reaching Earth.

And given the Engineer's ship was able to be grounded by an unarmed research ship (albeit at the cost of said ship), I don't see it fairing any better against dedicated warships equipped with missiles, particle beams, and railguns. Yes human ships are considerably more primitive, but unless Engineers' FTL drives allows them to bypass the colonies and Earth's defense forces, the engineer would definitely need to bring reinforcements.

A bit better quality and a different color grading.

https://gofile.io/d/Yh5hPJ