How has Alien: Covenant affected your personal canon?

[Kel G 426]

It's not an incorrect approach, to be sure.

[Acid_Reign161]

Ok, a bit late to this one, but this is my personal head canon;

Prometheus
Alien Covenant*
Alien
Alien Isolation
Aliens
Alien 3
Aliens: Colonial Marines*

Now I've starred Covenant and Colonial Marines, as they come with stipulations (which I will address below later). Avp simply does not exist to me in *any* form; I love Predator 1 & 2 in there own completely seperate universe, and sure I played some AvP games/read some comic books back in the day as a kid/had the kenner figures, but that was always to get my next 'Alien' fix. They do not and should not mix in my honest opinion. In fact if I were to expand upon the Alien universe in any way at all I'd rather put the Blade Runner movies up on that list.

Alien Resurrection is a live action Dark Horse comic to me; Just like AvP, its a fun watch once in a very rare blue moon, but it simply does not belong with the 'original trilogy' - aesthetics dont work (yeah yeah, 200 years etc i know lol), humor doesnt belong, designs bastardised H. R. Giger's work - its a comic, not a movie to me.

Now, Aliens: Colonial Marines - you may be surprised to see that on my canon list, but this is my take on it; It happened... just not how we saw it in the game. Think 'Alien Trilogy' ps1/pc/saturn videogame; it BASICALLY told events of the movies, but with a lot of liberties taken.. now apply that same logic to Colonial Marines. The technical manual told us that Weyland Yutani investigated LV-426 after the atmosphere processor explosion, specifically in search of the Derelict. That neatly corresponds with what we learn in the game. Also, the name of the ship, the Sephora - not only used in Colonial Marines, but mentioned in Aliens: Infestation (again, telling events differently, but from these sources, we can start pulling "the facts") So Weyu *did* go back to LV-426, the derelict *was* studied by the bioweapons division, and the Sephora was sent in to investigate the missing Sulaco mission.. as far as i am concerned, these things happened :-) (how that pans out is up to debate)

You may be wondering why I starred Covenant - and the reasoning is that it all rests on how sequels leading up to Alien (if we ever get them) are handled to determine if Prometheus and Covenant are scratched from this list. I was always a fan of the mystery of the original movie.. i didnt need to know anything more about the space jockey than the poor creature had met its fate a long time ago, and history would repeat itself with the Nostromo... when Prometheus decided to tell us that the Jockey is in fact Human 1.0, and Covenant tells us the xenomorph is not ancient, it was made by an android only 30 years prior.. i CAN roll with that, IF certain things are addressed; 1- David's work MUST be based on Engineer experiments already documented  (ie; what we saw in Covenant was not him creating his own conceptual perfect organism from black goo, but rather, attempting to REPLICATE what Engineers have already previously done.. this would account for the very organic xeno (a work in progress), the gestation period and variance in chestburster, but also, it must come to be that the xeno we know and love from the original movie was created in part with engineer technology for one very important reason; the biomechanical appearence of the xeno matches that of the Juggernaught pilot too closely (which you will note is not actually wearing clothing, that is his biomechanically augmented body)... neither neomorph nor anything else created by black goo shared that aesthetic.. so to claim David single handedly creates the final xenomorph version single handedly and it just so happens to look identical to engineer armor is too far a stretch for me... id much rather David's ultramorph be him working to craft a copy... this would also allow the derelict on LV-426 to have zero involvement from David/ not break the established timeline/ "fossilized" Jockey canon of the original movie (because no way did that ship get there only a couple of decades before the Nostromo arrived!)

All other games, comic books, graphic novels, and audio dramas are just fun expanded media and non canon.

Thats my take on it :-)

[Biomechanoid]

I have no issue with Covenant's presented canon. In fact, I would even say Covenant's ending is the perfect ending for the prequel story line.

Just like The Silence of the Lambs was the perfect ending (well, before Hannibal 2001 was released). The film ends with the beast is loose, leaving the audience to ponder on Lecter's fate. It ends with Lecter now free to return to his ways of cannibalism, but will he be tracked down and stopped. A whole new adventure of Lecter for viewers to speculate.

Same for Covenant, the beast is loose, leaving the audience to ponder on David's fate. It ends with David now free to see through his mission to destroy humans, but will he be tracked down and stopped. A whole new adventure of David for viewers to speculate.

No story ever truly ends. At some point, the audience will eventually be left with speculating on what happens after. Since that is inevitable, leaving the audience with something juicy to speculate on, is ideal, imo.

[D. Compton Ambrose]

Not much, it was heavily implied from the moment the Deacon appears (from the moment we see the biomechanical nature of the Engineer biotechnology really) that the organism would have resulted or evolved from the Xenovirus regardless. Oh, and

Canon IS overrated in my book.
I treat it like a buffet, I take some stuff that I like and leave what I don't.

I enjoyed Covenant, But it doesn't change what I feel and think when I watch the original ALIEN.

When I watch a sequel, I only keep the relevant previous movies in regard.
So for example, David is only the creator of the xenomorphs when I watch Covenant. The space jockeys are only Engineers in flight suits when I watch Prometheus and covenant. When I watch ALIEN, I regard it for what was intended at the time it was made.

How else would you survive as a fan with all the abysmal comics and video game storylines? (Isolation is great though)

this^.

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

My personal canon goes like this...

First Order Canon:
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3

Second Order Canon:
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3
- ALIEN: RESURRECTION

Third Order Canon:
- PROMETHEUS
- ALIEN: COVENANT
- ... (whatever prequel coming next)
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3
- ALIEN: RESURRECTION

Non-Canon:
- EVERYTHING ELSE

[D. Compton Ambrose]

My personal canon goes like this...

First Order Canon:
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3

Second Order Canon:
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3
- ALIEN: RESURRECTION

Third Order Canon:
- PROMETHEUS
- ALIEN: COVENANT
- ... (whatever prequel coming next)
- ALIEN
- ALIENS
- ALIEN 3
- ALIEN: RESURRECTION

Non-Canon:
- EVERYTHING ELSE

Same here, with the first order being that the Xenomorph is simply an incredibly deadly organism/animal from elsewhere.

[A_Sexual_Tyrannosaurus]

ALIEN
ALIENS

Anything else was either bad cryo-dreams and/or Ripley tripping balls on antidepressants as she goes through loads of therapy back on Earth (with Newt and Hicks by her side, of course).

[farsightblogger]

My personal canon goes like this:

Blade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
Outland
Alien



My starting point will always be Alien. It's my favourite movie of all time and I can't help but compare all other Alien movies or projects to that one film, or measure them against it.

Now, I love Aliens - it was one of my go-to movies in the 1980s and 1990s and I still love it - but it was a terrible sequel. It unpicked the Alien, gave it a real-world analogy in an ant hive thereby stripping it of it's horrible mysterious origins, turned them from an unstoppable killer into target practice and was more a thriller than a horror, but it's so well made and is such a great action film it's right up my alley. If I had to choose one other film to part of the canon, Aliens would be it.

Alien 3 tried to capture the mood of Alien but failed, we all know the story of it's production, but it's still a good film as it's wonderfully shot and well performed. My gripe with it is the deaths of Hicks and Newt; it makes the events and character arcs of Aliens utterly pointless and although it keeps in with the nihilistic tone of the first film it just felt like it was done for either increased personal drama - which I didn't feel at all - and a reset button so that we could have more 'The Further Adventures of Aliens!' movies.

Alien: Resurrection I simply can't get my head around. It looked great and Ron Pearlman makes everything better, but I really did not like it. The alien hybrid was just ridiculous and the cloned Ripley story was intriguing but really flat.

I can't watch the AvP movies again. They're badly made fan fiction flicks that manage to subvert everything that made the franchises great in the first place. I don't count them as part of either canon, Alien or Predator, and both franchises need to be seperated.

I quite enjoyed Prometheus and liked the direction it went in, but wasn't impressed with the way they tied in the engineers with the space jockey, with bio spacesuits and the like. It just didn't feel right to me and, again, the eldritch mystery of a fossilied alien that grew out of the chair of his spaceship was flattened. Like I said before, I measure everything against the original movie.

Alien: Covenant was a good film and I liked the premise, but David being the alien's creator? I don't buy that at all and, again, based on the original film it makes no sense. I'd like to think that he's lying and part of his malfunction is that he has delusions of grandeur, but something tells me that's not the case.

Alien: Isolation was fantastic and bought back everything I loved about the original movie. Although the story was a bit... convenient, it played out really well, and I have no problem making that part of my preferred canon.

I feel that all of the comics and novels had hugely varying levels of quality and/or competence, so for the sake of simplicity I just ignore all of that.

So...

My personal canon is Alien, Alien: Isolation and, at a push, Aliens.

Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection can stay together as an experiment in storytelling, or Hypersleep nightmares, or whatever you want to call them.

Prometheus and Covenant are 'reboots' of the original from a wholly new angle, with it's own story and mythology.

AvP and AvP:R is ignored completely. Saying that, AvP does have some fun bits and I wouldn't turn it off if it came on TV.

[Gash]

It ruined my perception on the Aliens themselves. Like a product of a defective android who has daddy issues cuz he can't create stuff. Not to mention the species isn't an old ancient horror that very few managed to not only encounter, but survive.

I've never understood this point of view. Everything in Prometheus and Covenant point to David trying to rekindle something ancient, something that even the Engineers couldn't control. It's also obvious that his experiments have moved closer to their goal but still fall well short of it. Therefore the alien remains an ancient evil, just one that has been brought back from extinction thanks to David. I have no problem with that at all.

Also, is David evil? I consider him to be amoral, his opinions on his place in human hierarchy having developed largely In isolation - and that seems entirely plausible.

[D. Compton Ambrose]

It ruined my perception on the Aliens themselves. Like a product of a defective android who has daddy issues cuz he can't create stuff. Not to mention the species isn't an old ancient horror that very few managed to not only encounter, but survive.

I've never understood this point of view. Everything in Prometheus and Covenant point to David trying to rekindle something ancient, something that even the Engineers couldn't control. It's also obvious that his experiments have moved closer to their goal but still fall well short of it. Therefore the alien remains an ancient evil, just one that has been brought back from extinction thanks to David. I have no problem with that at all.

Also, is David evil? I consider him to be amoral, his opinions on his place in human hierarchy having developed largely In isolation - and that seems entirely plausible.

It also makes it scarier, because the idea that something could survive extinction means the Xenomorph is now punching well above its weight in comparison to more advanced and powerful sci-fi universes like WH40K and Halo. In the Greg Bear Forerunner trilogy the Flood are noted to be powered by the consciousness of the once-extinct Precursors, them and the Forerunners, and possibly the Chaos, were previously known as some of the only known sci-fi factions to survive an extinction event, but now that David has at least 'partially' brought them back, the Xenomorphs are added to that list.

It also puts Ash's "I think its safe to assume its not a zombie," comment in an awkwardly ironic light.

[Apollo]

My canon runs like this:

Prometheus
Alien Covenant
(Next movie here)
Alien
Alien Isolation
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien Colonial Marines
Alien Resurrection

I enjoyed Covenant. Not my favourite in the franchise but not the worst.
I don't include any of the AvP films in this universe as I thought they were pish.
I also consider the Predator series separate to Alien.

[Predator@Alien]

My canon runs like this:

Prometheus
Alien Covenant
(Next movie here)
Alien
Alien Isolation
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien Colonial Marines
Alien Resurrection

I enjoyed Covenant. Not my favourite in the franchise but not the worst.
I don't include any of the AvP films in this universe as I thought they were pish.
I also consider the Predator series separate to Alien.

Just exactly like me  I'm happy to know that I'm not alone with this canon 

[Scorpio]

I don't include A:CM because the Turk thing is inexcusable.  That game is fan fiction.

[Local Trouble]

4) The new EU (fire & stone, life & death) is out.

Already?

[Predator@Alien]

I don't include A:CM because the Turk thing is inexcusable.  That game is fan fiction.

I appreciate all works because of their story. It's the only thing that matters : the story. Too many people don't like this game just because of graphics... The story is great ! If we doing some research, we know that all is fine, even the 17 weeks.
All of my canon must have these criteria :
- A logical Origin of Xenos. So only LV-426, and Planet 4 for now. All of this based on the fact that David created the Xenomorph.
- Exclude systematically AVP stories.
- And do not contradict the main stories of the films.

All works which have this critreria is canon, for me, because I want to keep a logical story