AlthoughPrometheusarrived over a decade ago,Alien: Romulusmeans that theAlienprequel’s best new character is more pivotal to the series than ever.Prometheus’s connections to the originalAlienare not too hard to discern, but the prequel’s additions to the franchise’s lore are pretty convoluted.Aliendirector Ridley Scott returned to the franchise for 2012’s prequel, which takes place 30 years before the events ofAlien. InPrometheus, a select crew of space explorers, joined by Weyland Industries CEO Peter Weyland and Michael Fassbender’s android David, visit a faraway planet.
The group arrive at the homeworld of the Engineers in the hopes of uncovering humanity’s origins, but what they discover is something much more disturbing. Before long, most of the crew are dead or worse, battling infections by Black Goo and attacks from monstrous Xenomorph hybrids. While theentireAlienfranchise timelinehinges on the events ofPrometheus, the prequel doesn’t make its connections to the original movie entirely clear.Prometheusdoes end with a Xenomorph emerging from the Space Jockey’s chest, but a lot of links between the prequel andAlienremain oblique.
Alien: Romulus’ Black Goo Twist Suggests That David Found Some Success With His Experiments
David Was Last Seen Trying To Reverse-engineer The Xenomorph
However, by theending of 2024’sAlien: Romulus, the import ofPrometheus’s story was a lot clearer. Ironically, Scott himself had an opportunity to clear up the prequel’s loose ends when he directed 2017’sAlien: Covenant, a direct sequel toPrometheusthat also takes place beforeAlien. However, that sequel explained very few of the lingering plot holes left behind byPrometheusand instead ended up opening some new ones in its wake. In contrast,2024’sAlien: Romulustook the confusing plot ofPrometheusand clarified its ending, making sense of exactly what David did after the finale.
InAlien: Covenant,it seemed like Fassbender’s amoral android was trying to create the original Xenomorph using DNA he extracted from the Black Goo seen inPrometheus. This was confusing for numerous reasons, not least that Xenomorphs seemed to exist before David.David’sAlienstoryline was clarified inAlien: Romulus, which takes place betweenAlienandAliens. In this tense standalone sequel, a group of desperate workers attempt to escape their mining planet by seeking refuge on an abandoned space station.
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On board, they encounter a lab filled with facehuggers and are soon attacked by Xenomorphs. Before this twist, an almost-destroyed android named Rook informs them that the lab was used to create perfect workers by fusing something obtained from the Black Goo with human DNA. Thus, viewers could discern that David’s research most likely consisted of him trying to reverse-engineer the Xenomorph from the Black Goo, as opposed to inventing the original alien on his own. This makes much more sense, but also makes David’s unfinished story more frustrating.
Alien Revisiting Prometheus Makes The Fate Of Ridley Scott’s Prequel Series Even More Bittersweet
Alien: Romulus Proves Fassbender’s Character Deserved A Better Ending
Even if the lab that the ill-fatedAlien: Romuluscharacters found wasn’t directly tied to David, its existence still seems to suggest that the android would also have made some big discoveries with his research. Thus,it is a shame that David never got a proper send-off from theAlienfranchisesince he was last seen whiskingAlien: Covenant’s final survivors further into space to turn them into his next experiments. WhilePrometheus’s story is now even more importantto theAlienmythos than ever, David’s story remains frustratingly unfinished, and it is tough to see how the series can fix this issue.
Not having closure to Scott’s prequel story is disappointing, and Fassbender’s unfeeling android was the most memorable new character fromPrometheusandAlien: Covenant.
On the one hand, the franchise shifted back into something that truly feels like anAlienmovie withAlien: Romulus, an intense, stand-alone sci-fi horror that prioritized scares and inventive set-pieces of philosophizing and complex lore. On the other hand, not having closure to Scott’s prequel story is disappointing, and Fassbender’s unfeeling android was the most memorable new character fromPrometheusandAlien: Covenant. Ideally, it would be great to see David’s story wrapped up as part of another sequel, but this would be hard to pull off thanks to his canon fate.
What Happened To David After Alien: Covenant In The Comics (And Is It Canon?)
David’s Fate After Alien: Covenant Is Referenced In A Tie-In Comic
InAlien#6 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Julius Ohta, two synthetic characters survive an encounter with the Xenomorphs and mention David while en route back to their home planet. One synthetic mentions the “Teachings of David” from their in-built “Philosophy archives,” quoting a creepy passage. According to David, “When at last they are gone, humanity will leave behind two gifts to the universe, precious in equal measure. Our creation, and their own self-destruction.”
This dark quote appears to prove thatDavid became an android Messiahof sorts after the ending ofAlien: Covenant, presumably recording the findings of his experiments alongside his philosophical musings. It is strange to imagine the human-run Weyland Yutani Industries uploading David’s teachings to the consciousness of synthetics since they appear to predict and celebrate the inevitable downfall of humanity, but this could be an oversight on the corporation’s part. David may have outsmarted them, hiding his pro-synthetic insights in other files the company needed to share with synthetics.
Should Michael Fassbender Return As David In Alien: Romulus’ Sequel?
Fassbender’s Alien Franchise Comeback Would Be A Mixed Blessing
What makes David’s fate from the tie-in comics interesting is that it could be canon, but it could just as easily be rewritten. After all, Scott’s prequels themselves completely rewrote the franchise canon, making the events ofAlien Vs. Predatorand its sequel irrelevant. If the nextAlienmovie brings back David, it won’t necessarily need to be as an android Messiah patiently awaiting humanity’s downfall. That said, this could be the perfect role for him, as it makes Fassbender’s character an even more dangerous threat than the franchise’s iconic titular Xenomorph and could even pit him against Weyland-Yutani.
A comeback from David might mean another entire movie devoted to his story, which could derail the momentum the franchise has gained from its recent success.
If David is advocating for synthetics and not humans in the nextAlienmovie, he could be the third villain in a series that already has both the Xenomorph and the shady Weyland-Yutani Corporation. This would make Fassbender’s return welcome, although the actor’s high profile means it is hard to see him coming back for only a few scenes. A comeback from David might mean another entire movie devoted to his story, which could derail the momentum the franchise has gained from its recent success. As such,Alien: Romulusironically madePrometheus’s best character more relevant while making his comeback harder.
