David did not create the Xenomorph

The only thing is what if that was just a big ole Easter egg? I guess we will find out eventually.

I also think that this is a very important aspect of the whole story. Those murals were already there when the Prometheus crew got there. And the canisters and black goo were there too.

That tells us that whoever was using those facilities on that planet... they already knew a lot about xenomorphs, mutatations, pathogens, and the characteristics of the black goo. David saw those murals too, so he knows that they knew a lot about what they were dealing with.

That proves that David isn't the creator of xenomorphs, in of themselves. But he could have created, or he could be creating a specific type of xenomorph... different from the ones the engineers were used to.

So there's no way that Ridley can change the entire history by making David the ORIGINAL creator. He can alter the history and make David the creator of some types of xenos though.

@cmutt you are SO correct.

Im of the mind set after seeing the film that david found the xeno "recipe" if you will. as he has an interesting line something like  " i have found perfection here, i have created perfection." this is the closes i remember. but it seems he's found the perfect organism and wants to breed one of his own and that's what he does. it seems he may have studied the engineer like people and their history and found out how to manipulate the black pathogen. which he explains fuses and then creates an agressive organism that has the dna of the host but is a fusion with a xeno like beast.  

i hope this is the path the story is taking since it would leave the alien as an ancient thing while showing how the black go works and a strain of different xenos 

@cmutt he can if he wants to. It's his movies.

splatterpunk true but that should not excuse lazy writing or unnecessary ret cons of already accepted lore in a prequel that's supposed to tie into the larger series 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo30bZc10D0&t=220s

3:30

So yeah it's official.

In my opinion... Ridley saying that David created the "original" xenomorph, simply means that David may have created the specific mutation that lead to the eggs in the cargo hold of the juggernaut in "Alien". Which thus, lead to the type of xeno that came out of Kane... the "original" xeno... from the "original" movie.

So again, it does not necessarily mean that he is saying that David created the very first xenos, as species.

David may only be responsible for that particular version from "Alien". 

Now that would mean that he is shifting the story a bit, to where the "Alien" film juggernaut and space jockey are not as old as everyone thought. 

Me personally? That doesn't bother me too much. So long as he sticks to the things that he already cemented in Prometheus, which are that the engineers have long been aware of the xenos and the black pathogen/mutogen stuff. The murals show that there is a history there. And the severed head was at least 2000 years old, so those things are pretty much established.

I am glad to hear Sir Ridley himself confirming David creating the  Xenomorph. The blueprint/concept may come from the engineers, but the finished product is from an Android.  

It's interesting to consider the implications of David's tinkering, both the precursors and effects, but to my mind these are purely theoretical.  We can scan murals till the cows come home and wag our finger at the robot, "No, you didn't build them! They were there all along!" But clearly David was doing something. We should look to the movie and ask, "what?"

There is a trait in David to appropriate culture and replicate it as his own.  In Prometheus, he lifts Lawrence of Arabia for his identity. In Covenant, his "lab" is rife with the aesthetic of Renaissance, "Davinci-esque." The tools he uses, from his flutes, his shears, and his statue of David vivisection of the humanoid alien, are not new concoctions of his android mind, but overlays of pre-existing pattern onto the world. At the risk of diminuating his skills, David employs the technique of collage or pastiche. When he is inspired by something, be it a Hollywood film, Renaissance/ Romantic thought, or the engineers creations, far from thoroughly evaluating and reprocessing it in to something new, he pastes it back out wholesale. Vis, I don't think it's that surprising that people doubt Ridley Scott's claim that David created the xenomorph. Similar creatures obviously existed before David tinkered about. The man has been known to make polarizing proclamations about his films in the past (eg Deckard as replicant), one wonders if he isn't simply being playful. Perhaps the meaning is that David created the xenomorphs, in the same sense a gifted child creates beautiful music by rote, when it's drilled by demanding teachers and an overwhelming sense of expectation/programming from its parents.

That's why I don't mind the plot point that David does indeed create something, and that he may be responsible for some of the future outcomes in the grand scheme of it all. I think that's pretty interesting.

But I also think that the search and inquiry to who the engineers were, where they came from, and how they linked to humans and the xenos, is also extremely interesting... maybe even more so.

I don't mind Ridley's changes in direction, or his new ideas, and whatnot. As long as they are both interesting and plausible within his already established story lines.