Did David Create the Xenomorphs?

Introduction

Ever since the release of the 2017 film Alien: Covenant directed by Ridley Scott (following up on the events from the 2012 film Prometheus, also directed by Scott), there has been an ongoing debate in the fanbase regarding whether or not the David 8 android featured in the film was actually the original creator of the Xenomorphs prominently featured throughout the Alien, Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Prometheus franchises, and arguably the fanbase did not react positively to such a suggestion, and I thought today would be a good time to delve into this issue and see whether this claim is actually true or not.

Evidence #1: Covenant Official Novelization

While the movie itself leaves the issue ambiguous and up to interpretation, the official novelization by Alan Dean Foster (who also wrote the novelizations of Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 along with the prequel novel Alien: Covenant - Origins) clears up the confusion by having David show Captain Oram a preserved Ovomorph (a Xenomorph egg) with a deceased Facehugger inside, and David reveals to Oram that the Engineers created this thing long before he ever stepped foot on Planet 4, saying that "it's a supreme example of their skills", and he expressed his desire to play God and create a similar "perfect organism" of his own, hence leading to the creation of a creature commonly dubbed the Protomorph, a variant of the Xenomorph. This argument obviously should be enough to settle the issue, but for the sake of completion there a few more arguments left to address.

Evidence #2: Prometheus Special Features

Among the special features on the home video release of Prometheus were found several logs from Peter Weyland tying into the events of the film, and one of them titled "Quiet Eye" mentions how he had already detected the distress signal on LV-426 (originating from the crashed Derelict Juggernaut ship containing all those Ovomorphs discovered by the USCSS Nostromo) about three years before the events of Prometheus. This is a pretty strong indication that David could not have been the original creator of the Xenomorphs.

Evidence #3: The Black Goo

It seems unreasonable, for a pathogenic substance and bioweapon such as this black goo/liquid known as Chemical/Agent A0-3959X.91 – 15 which has existed for billions of years as a creation of the Engineers and easily produces various different forms of Xenomorph-like organisms such as the Deacon Alien and the Neomorph Alien, to suggest that Xenomorphs could not have been produced countless times before Project Prometheus was even under way (which other people have already addressed before as demonstrated through the explanation videos below).

Evidence #4: Expanded Universe

With the release of the comic book crossover event Fire and Stone (2014-2015) and Life and Death (2016-2017) by Dark Horse Comics, which served as a continuation to the 2012 film Prometheus and were further affirmed by the release of the 2014 technical guide Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, 20th Century Fox officially connected the Alien, Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Prometheus franchises together and thereby further solidified the fact that Xenomorphs have been around for many millennia and standing as a stark contradiction to the idea of David as the supposed original creator of the Xenomorphs in 2104.

This shared timeline is also further demonstrated in other products such as The Alien & Predator Figurine Collection by Eaglemoss Collections which views each and every one of the twelve films as being canonical to each other and produces figures from each film, and the most recent film in the shared universe, being the 2018 film The Predator, further solidified that Xenomorphs have existed long before David came on the scene (and even offered an excuse for explaining the phenomenon of Xenomorphs in the past, if David had actually been the original creator, in that it suggested the possibility of Yautjas being able to bend space and travel through time, which was also suggested possible by the Engineers in the Life and Death comics). But for the full picture I recommend this article; Does Alien and Predator Take Place in a Shared Universe?

Evidence #5: Interviews

In a few fascinating interviews with director Ridley Scott, he was quoted as saying that "it was far more interesting to have David be the creator rather than the Engineers", and while this may seem like the final nail in the coffin to some, that was really all it ever was. An interesting concept being played around with during the production of the film, but it was never actually realized on screen, or not explicitly anyways (however that would have been achieved), and was contradicted by various other materials (as briefly touched upon in this article). Furthermore, it's extremely doubtful that 20th Century Studios would pick up and confirm Scott's intention here, especially considering the outrage from the fanbase that this idea caused, as it completely ignored that the mysterious ancient nature of the Xenomorphs had already been accepted by the fanbase and firmly established through the films and various media over the decades and even originating in the original 1979 film Alien which Scott also directed.

Conclusion

The evidence available seems to suggest that the most likely interpretation of David's role in Covenant is not actually that of the original creator of the Xenomorphs, but rather merely a replicator of previous creations by the Engineers, and other members of the fanbase seems to have come to similar conclusions (as demonstrated by the videos below) while 20th Century Studios seem likely to shy away from the topic, especially considering the immense disapproval of this idea of David as creator within their fanbase.