Quote from: Russ on Jan 09, 2014, 10:15:42 AM
I think multi-verse in story telling is a bit of double edged (or infinite edged) sword. Yes, it clears up some problems (Weyland vs Weyland, Hick vs Wilkes etc), but as time goes on, it can almost become a de-facto clause for "doing something a bit different." And then you can end up in a big mess.
Again, the idea of the multiverse doesn't have to be openly addressed in the storylines. I do agree that it does clear up some problems here and there but I also don't think that it would be a bad thing. We already have storylines which actually do infact do something differently, and I could think of one off the top of my head. The Shirley and Greenberg novels completely eschew the Yautja mythology and installed the Hish mythology-- this storyline went on for two books.
Quote from: Russ on Jan 09, 2014, 10:15:42 AM
Much like DC - they did away with the multi-verse in 1985 (I think) and slowly brought it back in. So much so that what was an "event" became a cliche.
So not for me - I'm hopeful that they can tie it all up with a neat bow. Though, it may mean that (as much as I love these movies) AvP and AvP:R may become the Superman III and IV of the franchise and be handwaved as SM says.
DC's Infinite Crisis storyline in 1985 was a means to actually reboot their own franchises. All of the previous storylines prior to 1985 were simply retconned specifically in the storyline as being reality warped to form a new Earth, namely Earth-2. I am not at all suggesting that if there is an Alien-Predator multiverse that there should be an Infinite Crisis thing going on. No. None of the proposed multiverse actually has to interact with each other. Nor should they be aware of each other's existence. I would suggest actually looking at the Godzilla franchise, the Showa, Heisei and Millenium eiga films are all regarded as separate universes (the Millennium series being a more extreme case with only the Kiryu storyline being the only continuity) but they don't acknowledge one another as they aren't aware of each other.
I don't think that tying all of the films or the licensed material would work too well. Sure, a lot of fans have worked in ways to retcon it all int working but that's all fanon and I wouldn't count that. Unless someone at Fox actually takes the time and effort to do it, I wouldn't count anything unofficial.
As for AvP and AvP-R, well.. Fox hasn't given any word on their status in canon however it should be noted that AvP2010 continued on with their storyline and to a lesser extent-- so did AvP: Evolution though it did so somewhat ambiguously (since the film ties in PREDATORS which apparently has NOTHING to do with AvP). But on that note, ignored films doesn't necessarily mean retconned or even jettisoned from canon. There are a lot of films which have continuities which are ignored by other sequels which happen to be direct sequels to the first film which creates different continuities-- again, look at the Godzilla franchise to see what I mean. Look at Highlander as well.
That maybe the case between AvP, PREDATORS, and Prometheus.