Alien & Predator Universe

Introduction

During this past decade, there has been an increasing focus on what should be considered canonical within the fictional universe of the Alien, Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Prometheus franchises established by 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios under the new rule of The Walt Disney Company) and featuring the eponymous Alien (Xenomorph) and Predator (Yautja) creatures. In regards to this, one could argue that there are basically two different groups of the fanbase involved in this debate, and let's call them the separatists (who argues for a separation of this shared universe into separate universes) and the universalists (who argues for a single shared universe and generally reject the notion of separate universes). Now, for the following article I intend to examine this debate and eventually determine which side is most likely to be objectively true (or what is canon and what is fanon) and most consistent with the mindset present at 20th Century Fox throughout the past four decades that these franchises have been in existence.

History

It all began in the first decade with the release of the motion pictures Alien directed by Ridley Scott, Aliens directed by James Cameron, and Predator directed by John McTiernan and released back in 1979, 1986, and 1987 respectively, and following the financial and critical success of these films and their shared themes, 20th Century Fox decided to begin moving towards developing a shared continuity between these franchises, beginning with the comic book line Aliens Versus Predator by Dark Horse Comics, which also produced the single Aliens and Predator comics, in 1989 and promoted this as the Aliens/Predator Universe which would continue for decades to come.

From there on it continued to the big screen with Predator 2 directed by Stephen Hopkins in 1990 which prominently featured a Xenomorph skull in the trophy room of the Yautja spaceship for the entire audience to see (noting that some people like to refer to this as an "easter egg" as an excuse to overlook it, although this is clearly not an actual easter egg as that would imply a secret or hidden, non-serious, ambiguous reference to some other work, whereas this skull is a clear-cut reference positioned in plain sight and requiring an in-universe explanation). It was the idea of the director as a way of showing off all the different species and creatures that the Yautja have hunted and killed, while also acting as a nod to the popular comics, and this only further popularized the concept of a shared universe and resulted in several new products being released.

During this second decade of the 1990's and during the development of Alien 3 from 1992 directed by David Fincher and Alien Resurrection from 1997 directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Fox continued to develop several comic book lines including Aliens: Space Marines (1992), and even video game adaptations such as Alien vs. Predator (1994) and Aliens Versus Predator (1999) which subsequently received sequels in terms of Aliens Versus Predator 2 (2001) and Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction (2003), and various toy lines such as those produced by Kenner and based in the shared universe such as the Aliens: Hive Wars line from 1998 which included both Xenomorphs and Yautjas.

But not only that, Fox was actively looking to develop a motion picture adaptation of this shared universe and thereby seal the deal (and Sigourney Weaver reportedly stated that this was a reason why she wanted her character of Ellen Ripley to be killed off in 1992's Alien 3), with an early script being produced and titled The Hunt: Alien vs. Predator and written by Peter Briggs in 1991. The draft was rejected however, and it wasn't until the third decade on our timeline that director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson came onto the scene and pitched his own version of the film to Fox (including elements written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett who also worked on the original Alien film) that it finally happened and AVP: Alien vs. Predator was released in 2004 and the shared universe was officially cemented together.

Worth noting here is that Anderson decided to also incorporate the character of Charles Bishop Weyland, played by Lance Henriksen from Aliens, to provide a more solid connection to the Alien films in that this character serves as the original founder of Weyland Industries (or Weyland Corporation), being one of the ancestral companies to the infamous Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and Anderson also stated that his character would serve as the inspiration for the Bishop line of androids which were designed in the honor and likeness of Charles due to his many great achievements in life such as discovering the pyramid structure on Bouvet Island in Antarctica before his death in 2004.

On this topic, Paul Anderson stated in an interview with IGN; "the role was written for him. I wanted some casting continuity with the Alien franchise even though it is set 100 years after our movie. The only person that could be was Lance. He, of course, was an android in the other movies. That was the idea behind that. I thought it was kind of a neat idea … I wanted to use the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in some respect. So the idea is that Charles Bishop Weyland is like Bill Gates, but his area of expertise is robotics. He's made his money in high tech and he's like the father of modern robotics. So that when the Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates. The idea with Weyland is that his character is a man who is dying and like a lot of rich men who are facing the end, they realize that money and power aren't enough. What they want to do is leave something behind. So it's kind of like his longing for immortality that precipitates a lot of the events in this film, but also explains why his corporation would build something with his face."

During the same interview, while asked about whether the new film would implement any changes to the Alien and Predator mythology, Anderson stated; "I wouldn't f**king dream of that, no. That's beyond me. The movie is designed to be a sequel to the Predator movies and a prequel to the Alien movies. In no way does it contradict or go against anything in the Alien franchise. We've been very careful about that. It's set in the present day and on Earth, so it's like 150 years before Sigourney Weaver's out in space. It really makes sense. When you see this movie and then those movies, well I understand why she was completely ignorant of the existence of Aliens, but the Weyland-Yutani people did have an awareness of them. In that respect, there is a mythology to it (and there is a lot of mythology in the movie), but it is more related to Earth history rather than the history of Aliens and Predators. I'm not trying to explain away their genesis or anything like that. The idea is very much inspired by something Ron Cobb did for the very first Alien movie. I don't know if any of you have the original Alien book (which was done ages ago), but it had some original artwork from Alien for the pyramid that was never built ... Ron Cobb did some really cool designs, which were hieroglyphics showing the eggs … and that was very much an inspiration for this movie. It was a strand of Alien mythology that existed already but that never made it in Ridley Scott's movie."

The film was a financial success which revived the Alien and Predator franchises and lead to the production of a sequel, AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem directed by brothers Colin and Greg Strause and released in 2007, to further establish the shared universe, and this time the Strause Brothers sought to help achieve this by introducing the Yutani Corporation, the second ancestral company to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and setting up the ending with a Yautja plasma gun being brought to Miss Yutani (played by Françoise Yip) to intentionally insinuate that this piece of extraterrestrial technology will lead to the advancement of our own human technology to the point that we would develop faster-than-light drives such as those fitted aboard the commercial starship USCSS Nostromo, and thereby setting up early versions of AVP3, including an AVP3 written by Liam O'Donnell, as revealed to be leading directly into the timeline of the Alien films in an interview with io9.

In the same interview, Greg Strause stated; "The original ending for AVPR, that we pitched them, ended up on the alien homeward, and actually going from the Predator gun, that you see at the end, it was going to transition from that gun to a logo of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship that was heading to an alien planet. And then we were actually going to cut down to the surface and you were going to see a hunt going on. It was going to be a whole tribe of predators going against this creature that we called "King Alien." It's this huge giant winged alien thing. And that was going to be the lead-in, to show that the fact that the Predator gun is the impetus of all the technological advancements that allowed humans to travel in space. Which leads up to the Alien timeline."

Greg continues; "That was the idea. They never got any of the equipment from the first Predators. It's the first time they ever received any intact working technology left over. So they could take that and reverse engineer, figure out what the power source was - all of those things. And in theory, that would enable that company to make massive advancements in technology and dominate the space industry. That was the whole idea, was to literally continue from Ms. Yutani getting the gun - and then cut to 50 years in the future, and there's spaceships now. We've made a quantum leap in space travel. That was going to set up the ending, which would then set up what AVP was going to be, which would take place 100 years in the future. That was kind of the plan."

This cinematic universe would subsequently be reflected in various other products, including novels, toys, and new lines of comic books such as Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010), and not to mention video games such as Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005) featuring several references to the films such as Charles Weyland and Yutani Corp, as well as featuring Xenomorphs and the MOTHER computer, and Aliens vs. Predator (2010) which referenced Charles Weyland and Ellen Ripley, and featured Karl Bishop Weyland played by Lance Henriksen and acting as a "descendant" of Charles, along with creature designs and mythology from AVP and AVPR.

However, following the generally negative reception of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Fox decided that for the fourth and last decade on our timeline to focus on developing the main series again and began with Predators directed by Nimrod Antal and released in 2010. This film was described as serving as the Predator-equivalent to Aliens from 1986 and featured several references to that film, such as the main group of soldiers fighting off a group of extraterrestrial threats and taking refuge with the sole survivor on the planet within a large abandoned facility, and more directly during moments such as when Isabelle delivers the line "I'll do us both" to Edwin which echoes the conversation between Ripley and Hicks. Noting that the lower jaw on the Berserker Predator's mask was stated by the director as belonging to a Xenomorph.

But to make sure the audience understood that the shared universe remains intact Fox decided to release several home video collections featuring all Alien and Predator films up to that time, such as the Alien/AVP/Predator - The Ultimate Annihilation: Nine Movie Collection released in 2011.

Then in 2012 came the next chapter in the cinematic universe, Prometheus, where Ridley Scott returned as director. It was particularly at this point that some fans started to question whether Fox was still upholding the shared universe or whether it had been dissolved, and it largely arose from speculation about the apparent discrepancy between the character of Peter Weyland, as introduced in the film, and the character of Charles Weyland, from Alien vs. Predator. I address this issue in the following article and explain why this is not a problem (noting that promotional material such as the Weyland Industries website still uses the name "Weyland Industries" as popularized through Alien vs. Predator); Are Charles Weyland and Peter Weyland Related?

This started a big debate within the fanbase which was only further encouraged when Fox released the sequel Alien: Covenant in 2017, also directed by Scott, and the issue this entry brought with it in terms of the question regarding if the David android featured within the film actually serves as the original creator of the Xenomorphs or not, and whether this affects the official timeline as presented through Alien vs. Predator. I also address this issue in the following article and explain why this is not a problem; Did David Create the Xenomorphs?

It seems however that Fox completely disregarded any concerns about the shared universe having supposedly been disrupted considering they kept producing and promoting products which further affirmed the existence of the shared universe. Most noteworthy in this case are the Fire and Stone (2014-2015) and Life and Death (2016-2017) comic books by Dark Horse Comics which acted as continuations to the 2012 film Prometheus and officially connected the Alien, Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Prometheus franchises together and featured several references back to the films.

These storylines were further affirmed by the release of the 2014 technical guide Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, which also affirmed the films Prometheus, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, and the video game Alien: Isolation, the latter which also mentioned Weyland Industries, as first originating in Alien vs. Predator, within a data terminal, and by extension its comic book sequels Aliens: Defiance (2016-2017) along with Aliens: Resistance (2019) and Aliens: Rescue (2019).

There were also novels affirming a shared continuity, including The Rage War Trilogy consisting of Predator: Incursion (2014), Aliens: Invasion (2016), and Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon (2016), and also their prequels Aliens: Bug Hunt (2017) and Predator: If It Bleeds (2017) as well as the connected Alien: Out of the Shadows (2014), Alien: Sea of Sorrows (2014), and Alien: River of Pain (2014). The contents of these novels were also referenced in Fire and Stone, Life and Death, and Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report.

Empire Magazine also addressed all eight films in the Alien franchise, counting AVP and AVPR, in their November issue of Empire Classics - Alien: The Complete History of All 8 Films (2018).

This also included video games like Aliens: Colonial Marines from 2013 (which featured the "Pups" from Prometheus along with Peter Weyland's Weyland Corp and the character Michael Bishop Weyland from Alien 3 to refer back to the connection between the Bishop androids from Aliens and Charles Bishop Weyland), AVP: Evolution from 2013 (which even featured the logo of Peter Weyland's iteration of Weyland Corp on the main menu while tying into the 2010 film Predators and the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator), the Soldier's Inc. - Alien vs. Predator event from 2015 (which implied Charles Weyland's company and Peter Weyland's company to be synonymous), and Aliens vs. Pinball from 2016 (which promoted both the films Aliens, Alien vs. Predator, and the video game Alien: Isolation as being part of the same world).

There were also board games such as Clue: Alien vs. Predator (2016) and AVP: The Hunt Begins (2015) and its expansion packs AVP: Unleashed (2017) and AVP: Hot Landing Zone (2019) which also tied together all the films and included creatures from the films and the new games such as Aliens: Colonial Marines as if they existed in the same universe. The world of the aforementioned Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator novels and previous comics of the Aliens/Predator Universe such as Aliens: Defiance, Aliens: Resistance, and Aliens: Rescue acting as sequels to the video game Alien: Isolation were also included in the tabletop game Alien: The Roleplaying Game (2019).

Funko Pop, Loot Crate, and Titan also partnered with 20th Century Fox in producing their own Alien and Predator line of figures and merchandise based upon the films, as well as their very own 360° VR short film titled Predator vs. Colonial Marines (2016). Not to forget about all the other new toy lines such as Prime1Studio's Alien and Predator line, the Alien & Predator Classics by NECA, and The Alien & Predator Figurine Collection by Eaglemoss Collections, all which feature characters from all twelve films and treating them as if they belonged to one and the same universe.

Finally, we arrive at the last piece of the puzzle, namely the 2018 film The Predator directed by Shane Black. This film only further confirmed that the shared universe remains intact and included several references back to previous films, including the appearance of Alexa's spear made by the Scar Predator from a Xenomorph tail at the end of Alien vs. Predator along with the return of Cullen Yutani (played by Françoise Yip) from the end of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Although the most noteworthy detail is the existence of two deleted scenes which served as alternate endings to the film and featuring the characters of Ellen Ripley and Rebecca "Newt" Jorden (both played by Breanna Watkins) from Aliens in a Weyland-Yutani pod and wearing a Weyland-Yutani breathing apparatus in the likeness of a Xenomorph Facehugger, and these scenes would of course further affirm the space-time traveling aspect of the Yautja's technology as introduced at the start of the film. Granted, such deleted scenes may not be present in the final product (although they may be present in later re-releases), but their mere existence most certainly sends the message loud and clear that the shared Alien and Predator universe remains intact or otherwise these scenes would never ever have even been conceptualized, produced, and filmed.

Even through their Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator websites and social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube does Fox keep promoting their relationship. Noting that the MU/TH/UR 6000 Interface which was active on the official Alien Universe website around 2016-2017 acknowledged Predator, Yautja, and Charles Bishop Weyland among other things as classified information, thus clearly implying something.

Most recently we also saw the release of the new comic by Dark Horse Comics titled Alien vs. Predator: Thicker Than Blood in 2020, marking the beginning of the fifth and latest decade on our timeline. Adding that news recently broke of an Aliens vs. Predator anime series being developed for Netflix which was apparently sadly cancelled during Disney's acquisition of Fox along with various other Alien and Predator products. Another thing worth noting here is that some people like to argue that "just because new products uses the same logo and references to the films that doesn't mean it's acknowledging the films", except that it makes no sense to use the exact same logo introduced and associated with the films and much less make references to the films if they're not connected, adding that this nonsensical argument could be made for any other work bearing the Alien, Predator, and Prometheus titles, and the overall context will make it clear that we're dealing with a shared world.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the case seems to be clear as to the Alien, Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Prometheus franchises all taking place within a single continuity for as long as they've been around, and there appears to be no considerable reasons to oppose this rather obvious fact (it should also be noted that empty hearsay and unverifiable or contradictory claims and personal canon or fanon from individuals associated with or working for Fox hardly counts here).

After all, it would seem inconsistent of 20th Century Fox to hold to the position that a shared universe doesn't exist, and at the same time repeatedly demonstrate through their own products and media that a shared universe evidently and unavoidably must exist, without any clear boundaries or licensing issues, especially seeing as Fox owns each of these franchises and seem to relatively regularly resort to crossing them over, which also makes sense financially.

It should also logically come as perfectly expected, that essentially whatever new products using these licenses are released, for the general audience to conclude that these products simply and always exists in continiuity with each other, considering how irreversibly interconnected these franchises are by now and the fanbases which formed around them as a shared universe.

Ultimately, it seems we ought to realize that the evidence works in favor of the universalists holding to what is actually canon whereas the separatists hold to their own personal fanon, and I apologize if I've shattered the illusion of some people who prefer there to be separate universes for whatever reasons, but I can't deny the evidence and especially when bringing together the fanbase rather than separating it is so much more preferable and acknowledging the shared universe causes much less confusion continuity wise.

I also doubt that Disney/20th Century Studios have any interest in dismantling a profitable and established universe like this. For all intents and purposes, the shared universe appears at the moment to remain very much intact and active and has remained permanent since the very beginning across four decades, and only time will tell what this fifth decade holds in store for this Alien/Predator franchise and its fanbase.

Alien & Predator Universe

Pages

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Does Alien and Predator Take Place in a Shared Universe?

Introduction

History

Conclusion