Summary

Ridley Scott's Alien prequel duology (Prometheus and Covenant) was unable to capture the essence of the original 1979 Alien film, instead going in a very different direction.
The story of android David and his experiments with creating a new species was left incomplete, as a third entry in the series will likely not happen.
The missed opportunity to conclude David's story makes the prequels, Prometheus and Covenant, less interesting in retrospect, leaving a significant gap between the events of Covenant and the original Alien.

Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant sequel that never was makes the Alien prequel duology even worse in retrospect. While Prometheus and Covenant deserve to be praised when it comes to bringing new ideas to the franchise, neither of them recaptured what made Scott’s Alien (1979) so good. Prometheus and Covenant could not have been more different from Alien, although Covenant tried to be a more traditional Alien film compared to Prometheus.

Prometheus and Covenant, which grossed $664 million combined, were mainly about David (Michael Fassbender). The android, by trying to understand his existence, ended up being the creator of a new species. Prompted by the discoveries and knowledge of the Engineers, David began to test variations of a new, destructive life form. However, the final chapter in David’s Xenomorph experiments, which rewrote the Alien movie franchise timeline, never came to be.

Covenant Not Getting A Sequel Makes The Alien Prequels Incomplete (& Worse)

An image of the David inspecting an object in Prometheus

More than six years after Alien: Covenant, it is clear that a third entry in Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel franchise will not happen. Scott has moved on to other projects, including a return to the Blade Runner franchise with a TV show, whereas the Alien franchise is getting a new film and a series. Disney’s Alien movie is being described as a reboot, although it is unclear whether Fede Álvarez’s untitled Alien 7 will tie into any of the previous entries. Either way, the story that began with Prometheus and led to Covenant will most likely never be wrapped up on the big screen.

Even though revealing the origins of the Alien and tying it to the origins of humanity itself was arguably unnecessary, it is disappointing that the story will never be properly concluded. Without a possible final entry in David’s story, both Prometheus and Covenant become less interesting in retrospect. The Alien prequels all but confirmed that David was the creator of the Xenomorph species from the original films, but Alien: Covenant’s ending was not meant to be the end of the story. There is a significant gap between Covenant and the Nostromo landing on LV-426, which presumably will never be addressed in the movies.

Where David’s Story Was Going Next In Ridley Scott’s Alien Prequels

A custom image featuring David and the Xenomorph in Alien Covenant

When discussing plans for an Alien: Covenant sequel in 2017, Scott mentioned how the origin story of the Alien was close to being concluded. This third movie in the Prometheus-Covenant franchise would likely have seen David finally creating the final version of the Xenomorph seen in Alien (1979). The film would have confirmed Scott’s most significant Alien retcon, which, curiously, made it impossible to perceive Predator 2 and the Alien vs. Predator films as part of the same continuity as the Alien movies. Prometheus and Covenant made it so that the Xenomorph species as depicted in the original films was created by David in the 22nd century, going against what Predator 2's Alien Easter egg had established.

Alien: Covenant takes place in 2104, whereas Alien (1979) is set in 2122. In other words, 18 years separate the events of Covenant and the beginning of the story of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). A Covenant sequel could have bridged those two corners of the franchise, offering a new, definitive answer to the mysteries surrounding the Nostromo’s mission on LV-426. Naturally, retconning the original Alien films even further would have led to divisive reactions. Still, after Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel story deserved a proper conclusion, even though it would have been a risky film financially.