Ridley Scott confirms David WAS the originator of the xenomorph AND that the beings he bombarded were in fact engineers.

Membrane, next time when "Alien: (Fool's) Awakening" comes out we can go to a steakhouse knowing that we will spent our money on something that makes "sense". ;)

For anyone who is still wondering about the 'mural' on the wall in Prometheus, and the xeno-looking figure on it, and the jumbo-sized facehuggers you can see on it, etc. etc....

One of the production designers from Prometheus, Steve Messing, specifically states in an interview that the mural was put there as a tribute/homage to H.R. Giger. To quote:

"I also sculpted an altar area for this set that paid homage to Giger -it is a relief sculpture hanging from the wall and has the impression of an alien form with flowing structures surrounding it. There are a lot of easter eggs in this sculpture — including several hidden Giger motifs that were not used in the original film."

Seriously. That's all it was.

As far as the jumbo sized facehuggers - those are in fact early designs that Giger did himself for the original 1979 Alien (which were obviously not used). You can see them if you go back and watch the making-of documentary "The Beast Within" from the Alien quadrilogy boxed DVD set, or if you read the book "Giger's Alien" which came out around that time, too. 

There really was no other motivation behind it, besides giving a nod to the master (Giger). 

I'll stick to my interpretation of Canon, springboarding exclusively off ALIEN and PROMETHEUS.

David's storyline, I cannot accept it any longer, it does too much damage to what I love about this franchise and I'm fighting back with better ideas that follow the fit/feel/finish/tone of ALIEN better than where FOX plans on taking it.

Maybe my works can be seen as a 'preserve' of sorts, a place where the original mystique has a chance to stay alive and vital, alongside that of other writers who have the same feelings about where FOX is taking things as I do.

I am heartbroken by where FOX is taking things, I really am as they're killing off something unique and beloved, in favor of a Cylon/Skynet-esque rogue AI.
wow....rogue AI that seeks to eradicate Humanity...how original...

and if Origae turns out to be LV-426, then I just dunno.

@BlackWinter-Witch I am still holding onto the small shred of hope that RS will do right by the original Aliens and the Fan base. Although, I see what has been done and can only shake my head and I hate to say it, but to me it seems RS is making a final push to direct and push out movies and at the same time, take the story the way that the complaints want him to go without regard for the grand scheme of the story and how it ties to his original work. That's just my thoughts, it saddens me to even think it but that's my worst case scenario thought if you know what I mean ?

Spoilers A:C Novelization

Excerpt:

“Quite something, that’s for sure,” Oram muttered. He continued to gaze at the egg-thing and its contents. As patently lifeless as it was, it still managed to send a quiver of fear through him.
“Oh, Captain.” David shook his head sadly. “Acknowledge beauty when you see it. Even if its appearance disturbs you, surely you can admire the skill that went into its design. In case you are wondering, I had nothing to do with it. It lies as I found it, a supreme example of the Engineers’ skill. And also, I suppose, of their hubris.

And there we have it! WTF?!

I will reserve my judgement on where Ridley is taking this series of prequels for this fall after I've read the Origins book.

I personally feel that people may be jumping the gun here on abandoning ship. But we'll see.

Chrono89

I know exactly what you mean and share your concerns about where this franchise is being taken.

QueenElizabethShaw

I won't give up on the ALIENverse, no matter what comes. But I am concerned, yet I will still choose to trust R. Scott. However, I have little trust of the FOX execs and their history of meddling and kibbitzing with this franchise.

They are the real problem.

Tiwaz

I saw this posted about earlier, and began wondering if it is indicative of a disconnect between Alan Dean Foster's work and the actual canon. It would be nice if we could ask either Ridley or ADF what is going on. 

Though I'll tell you know, my best guess is that Ridley is doing one of two things:

1. He's doesn't care if what ADF writes conflicts with his canon because the book will obviously not be read by most viewers.

2. He is choosing his words carefully in interviews and podcasts, technically never saying David was the true originator, but styling his words to make it sound that way as a misdirect.

I am sure Ridley Scott expected a 50 million dollar debut and a 500 million worldwide return. That didn't happen. Covenant made less than AVP on its debut, and it is less liked than Prometheus (soon it's going to be declared "rotten" by the rottentomatoes audience, only 62% liked it) The franchise did not get any new converts and lost quite a few with Covenant, so it is going to take a lot of persuasion on Ridley's part to convince 20th Century Fox to produce a sequel to this movie. I think everything points at a possible reboot now.

Blackwinter-witch

I share that exact concern. I know Ridley is a true visionary but even the art of a visionary can be damaged by the Corporate side of things. I will continue to entertain best/worst case scenarios, but will try not to get too far swept into either camp.

Really there's just some people I've seen on this forum that may as well be pouting and stamping their feet. The hostility and presumptuous dismissal of the entire thing is absurd. Right now we are being kept in suspense until we get more information. Ridley may have baked all this into the project purposefully for that reason. To provoke emotions.

It's just hard to tell. I will say my biggest gripe with how he's handling this centers on one particular risk.

Let's say Scott is in fact a genius who is purposefully bating us into distress because he knows at the end he is going to give all of us what we want. That creating these kinds of perceived shortcomings, then fixing them all in the final film would create even more acclaim for the trilogy when all is said and done. Even if that is the case, if Scott dies before completing the follow up films, then Hill and Giler take over, everything could be run straight into the ground in an even more extraordinarily horrific way than any of us can even imagine. Let's hope that doesn't end up being the case.

Well i did not like Prometheus and i actually think AC was two steps forward one step back so still better but still with a big WTF is going on moments! Better more believable characters actions etc.  But the story line hmm...

Even though i didn't like a lot of Prometheus it still had that awe factor in parts and Ridley mentioned a demi god many many races levels and a vastness that is space.  That all seems to be disappearing. 

The engineers are smaller weaker and have a sense of being not even as powerful as humans :s . In this film. David making the xenos sucks all the vastness mystery and fun out of them for me.  So we are talking a bit of nano tech that carries the black goo mutagen and David a creation of only 150 years of computing evolution beat these hulking millions of years old beings then used their stuff to do things better than them :O ? 

The graphic novels with the harsh home world evolving these creatures over millions of years to become amazing biological killing machines had way more potential... and the multiple races demi god stuff was the best with the idea in alien that the space jockey half been there for 100000 years or more... all that vastness feels so tiny with a basic android with 10 years on his hands... hmm so confusing. 

David doesn't sleep doesn't get tired has super speed  accuracy and strength. 10 years and kind of has a few small rooms with what looks like almost no technology? I would if thought he could of reorganized the engineers city into something way more impressive?! Anyway many more thoughts... sigh...

Two words:  Jack Daniels.

Let’s not write the series off yet.     Alien: Covenant will generate a profit!   I noticed that the movie Is running up against “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” and not even in 3D at my theatre.   A lot of people haven’t seen it yet!

So according to Ridley Scott the Engineers can only visit us every 500 years but now humans are traveling to their star system every 10 years or so?

 As for why this is all no were near the original alien films level.  It feels like the ideas man was obannon we don't have anyone like him driving this now. Gieger was the mind blowing alien injection that's also losing it's strength with no new angles. Even things like the alien film beginning shot with the slow waking up of the cryo stasis pods white room was so brilliant ...better designed ship ... taking it's time... the slow pace which added to the feeling of being in space. So real and great acting great characters... and that music... thank god they are using it again that's brilliant...

QueenElizabethShaw

Giler and Hill taking the helm of this franchise is a genuine nightmare, I agree! I take it you are probably aware of what they tried with the original first movie?

I agree with your points and you have a good, logical perspective. I will continue to stick with the franchise, though I reserve the right to bitch about things. :)
But I won't give up on it, not yet, not until the next film lays down the final cards.

And maybe not even then, unless they hand it over to Giler and Hill.
If the execs do that, then yeah, I will run far and fast from that bilious nightmare of idiocy before it even gets rolling.

@QES

That Book went through FOX's approval, before it was published.

I'm slowly thinking Riddler is "missing a few cups in the cabinet" as germans tend to say. He stated "The Engineers did't create him... David did...". "Him" of course could mean the AC-Xeno. It's slowly becoming a farce if you ask me. 

djamelameziane Whoever did the set design of the Covenant just went to Best buy and got a bunch of tv monitors of several sizes. Whenever I see the characters gathered at the "bridge" it looks to me I'm watching the behind the scenes of a film about broadcast news.

The beings on the 4th planet being engineers, I can understand and accept

They kinda reminded me of the Minbari from Babylon 5, the same race, but three casts.

Warrior caste, Religious and Worker.

I assume this planet had the religious type cast, who, like the Amish, choose not to include technology in their lives.

But, it makes no sense stating David made the original xenomorph

There's just too many glaring issues with that which have been rehashed on this forum many times.

I mean MAYBE the engineers come back to their paradise world, find it decimated, but also find the eggs, so they put the eggs on a transport version of a juggernaut, it somehow flies into a black hole and is transported back into the past (Like the spaceship from Sphere lol) and crashes on LV426.

Heh, who knows!