Alien: Earth | New Final Trailer | FX (4K)

Although Prometheus was already a solid Alien prequel, the upcoming TV series Alien: Earth will make Ridley Scott’s blockbuster a truly pivotal part of the franchise's story. Prometheus’ connection to the Alien franchise is both obvious and surprisingly convoluted. Many moments in director Ridley Scott’s ambitious 2012 blockbuster have clear links to his original 1979 sci-fi horror. Prometheus ends with a chestburster emerging from the corpse of an Engineer, while Alien’s opening sees Ripley and her crew encounter the same Engineer’s corpse and the same Xenomorph’s eggs while answering a distress call.

However, the very question of what an Engineer is and what they have to do with the Alien franchise’s timeline proves that Prometheus also massively complicated proceedings for the series. By Alien: Romulus’ ending, director Fede Alvarez managed to use his sequel to graft the lore of Prometheus onto the original Alien series. Although Alien: Romulus took place between Alien and Aliens, the movie did a better job of linking Prometheus’s story to those earlier hits than Scott’s own 2017 sequel, Alien: Covenant. That sequel was an enjoyable standalone sci-fi horror, but it only complicated the franchise's story.