ALIENS VS PREDATOR Timeline Explained

FAQs

ARE THE AVP MOVIES REALLY CANON TO THE ALIEN MOVIES?
This is a question for a couple of reasons:

1) Prometheus and Alien: Covenant imply David created the Xenomorph, while AvP suggests Predators have been fighting them for thousands of years.

2) Guy Pearce plays Peter Weyland in Prometheus and Covenant, founder of Weyland Industries, while Lance Henriksen plays Charles Bishop Weyland, founder of Weyland Industries, in Alien vs Predator.

You can make it all fit like I did in this timeline… Prometheus never explicitly states Peter founded the company, just that he runs it so you can imagine Charles founded it before a son or nephew named Peter eventually took over. As for the creation of the Xenomorph, Prometheus already threw a wrench in things thanks to that mural on the Engineer’s planet. It clearly shows a Xenomorph, meaning they pre-existed David’s work. Whether intentional by Ridley Scott or not, this opens the door to the idea that David, like AIs we have today, isn’t making anything new but just recycling things that already exist.

So you can make Alien vs Predator fit the canon but… Is it REALLY canon?

The answer is honestly… It’s kind of up to us. These franchises were made before the idea of a coherent cinematic universe was much of a thing. So, there wasn’t anyone at the helm ensuring Alien vs Predator, the Predator movies, and the Alien movies fit into a singular continuity. And in the world of fiction, when we talk about canon… We’re essentially talking about intent or what is in the imagination of creators with “authority” over a fictional world.

When you talk about MCU canon, we’re talking about what's in Kevin Feige and his team’s minds. In their imaginations, what happened in the fictional world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what didn’t?

When it comes to Alien and Predator, there hasn’t been a Kevin Feige that we know about… So whose imagination are we speculating on? It differs from filmmaker to filmmaker and executive to executive. On the latter, we can get some insight: Andrew EC Gaska is a writer who worked on some Alien RPG games and as a consultant on the franchises with 20th Century Fox. According to him, Fox views Alien, Predator, and Alien vs Predator as three unique franchises with their own separate continuities.

At the same time, Fox showed a willingness in the past to take elements of the Alien continuity and bring them into the Predator world. For example, The Predator ends with that gift from the savior Predator and it turns out to be “The Predator Killer.” But originally, in that box, they were going to find a person. At one point it was planned to be Ellen Ripley and at another, they considered making it Newt… Though she’d be a grown woman.

How could Ripley show up when she wouldn’t be born until nearly a century later? How could adult Newt show up when she died as a child in the future? Presumably there’d be some kind of time travel or alternate reality mechanics at play.

The broader point is that without a particular plan or intent behind “canon”… The very idea of it is theoretical. And that’s how you should take this video. It's a theoretical timeline connecting the events of a bunch of movies… Some of which are very intentionally connected. And some of which… Could be.

TLDR: There is no authority on what is or is not canon in these universes. I’m sure Ridley Scott would consider Alien wholly separate from Predator. At the same time, I’m sure some executives would disagree. Though, I have a feeling they’ll put more of a stake in the ground soon… Cinematic universes are all the rage. Romulus director Fede Alverez has expressed interest in another crossover and so has the President of Production at 20th Century Fox. Once it happens, I’m betting they’ll try to straighten out a more coherent canon. Or who knows, maybe they enjoy the flexibility that comes without a rigorous continuity. We’ll see!

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WHY DON’T YOU CALL THEM YAUTJA?
Another question you might have if you’ve explored some of the expanded Predator lore is… Why don’t I call them Yautja in this video? Well, it’s too hard to pronounce.

No, that's not the real reason. In actuality, they never used the term “Yautja” in the movies. Some claim that the larger Predator says it in “The Predator” but in my opinion, the jury is out. It's hard to decipher exactly what he’s saying. Not to mention some fans even question whether or not that movie should be considered canon to begin with, especially since it redefines Predators from trophy to DNA collectors.

Anyway, since this video is sticking only to canon defined by the movies, it didn’t feel right to borrow anything from the expanded lore including the Predators’ supposed “actual” name. Further, this timeline is generally written from the point of view of humanity and since they would have no way of knowing that name… At least in any of these movies, again, it felt wrong for me to use it in the narration.

That may change in the future if I do an “expanded” edition bringing in more comics and other non-movie entries from the franchises.

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WHY NO BLADE RUNNER?
Another question you might have is… Why no Blade Runner? Well, the idea that Blade Runner and Alien could share a universe comes from two places: easter eggs and a comment by Ridley Scott.

So, the easter eggs…

1) In Alien, Ripley’s escape pod shows a red “purge” screen and that’s the same screen shown inside the flying cars of Blade Runner. Now, if that’s more than just an easter egg and meant to be taken as true continuity… it would imply that the Nostromo is using technology that’s over a hundred years old.

2) The 20th anniversary Alien DVD from 1999 has an extra which gives bios for each character… And it mentions Dallas taking a paycheck from the Tyrell Corporation, the same corporation featured in Blade Runner.

3) In the UK SteelBook release of Prometheus, there are some transcribed audio logs from Weyland where he makes thinly veiled references to "a mentor and long-departed competitor" who "lived like a God on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels.” Clearly talking about Tyrell.

4) When you see some of Niander Wallace’s work in Blade Runner 2049, one of the figures looks kinda like an Engineer https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/9hd3ni/i_just_rewatched_blade_runner_2049_and_discovered/

Finally, here’s what Ridley Scott himself said, “There's almost like a connective tissue between all the stuff I went through on 'Alien' into the environment of the Nostromo and people living within close proximity to people who still have Earth-bound connections and here we have people on Earth, so almost this world could easily be the city that supports the crew that go out in Alien. So, in other words, when the crew of Alien come back in, they might go into this place and go into a bar off the street near where Deckard lives. That's how I thought about it."

I’ve always thought it was cool to imagine Blade Runner and Alien in the same world. They kind of fit, the Alien franchise implies Earth isn't a place you want to go and your odds are better off-world. That definitely seems to be the way things are heading back in Blade Runner which takes place in 2019.

But, when you’re talking broadly about a timeline and overall continuity… Again, it comes back to intent. Scott may have liked to imagine that Alien and Blade Runner share a world but ultimately, the rights are owned by two different companies. So, as you progress beyond the first entries in either series, that connection becomes more tenuous… The studios are unlikely to ever commission a true cross-over, a term that feels almost ridiculous to apply to masterpieces like Blade Runner and Alien. Though, they’ll allow easter eggs especially when it comes to extras outside the movies themselves.

Also, though Scott imagines them in the same world, there’s no evidence that James Cameron, David Fincher, or any of the other filmmakers involved in the Alien franchise thought of it that way. So, as the franchises grow, they become less and less intentionally connected. It moves into the space of “theoretical”… Could they be connected?

Sure, if you just take Blade Runner and Alien, there’s nothing inherently contradictory between them. But, when you add The Predator for example, it becomes more questionable… The Predator takes place in 2018 and Blade Runner takes place in 2019… This timeline falls apart if you say these stories share a universe and only take place a year apart. I.e., the world of “The Predator” looks nothing like the world of “Blade Runner”…. No industrialized hellscape, no flying cars, etc.

Not to mention, Blade Runner and Alien both have TV shows coming out soon which are dangerously close on the timeline… Blade Runner 2099 takes place in (obviously) 2099, while Alien: Erath takes place in 2120. Is there anyone who is ensuring that their visions of the future match up? Predator: Badlands is also coming out soon and that takes place at some point in the future, which will put it beyond Blade Runner’s vision of 2019 and possibly encroach on 2049.

Look, you could make it all fit if you squint hard enough… Like I did with Charles and Peter Weyland. But it's all a question of how hard are you willing to squint. For me, fitting Blade Runner, especially with The Predator, was a couple millimeters too far.

Recap Fargo

The whole timeline in these movies, are just totally, a big bowl of questions… In Prometheus, no questions are answered..? All of Alien-timeline are just fucked up with Alien – Rescurrection.. Predator – timeline are totaly screwed over in Predators… Prey, goes back to the "first" Predator going to earth , dated when the natives of America lived there.. Prey 2, that is one movie that should explain more…or less…Alien – Romulus, never gave any answers…

Is there a way I can sue you… this was so good I stayed up all night watching this. I gotta sue you for the loss of sleep for making great content

missed 1901 antartica

53:26 where do go? Where do we come come? Cotton Eye Joe.

There are a lode of books now on audible

The amount of ads in this video is disgusting

This would've been better labeled a recap rather than an "explained"

The Predator 2018 is such a nugget of crap I looped back onto liking it for how bad it was.

Ripleys cat what happened to it ?Another question?

Finally the time line explained thank you one take great viedo

I'd like to point out that the wrist self-destruction mechanism in the beginning clips shows a blast radius bigger than a pyramid, but Arnold can outrun it??🤔
😂😂

Once we get to Alien: DEI, I think we're all fucked.

Lions are NOT Indigenous to the Americas. Buffalo exists in Asia and Africa. Americas have bison. For a franchise spanning human history, this one does an abysmal job of understanding it. Orange flower lowers your body temp but somehow doesn't kill you?… please this is just stupid.

So the predators were forgotten at some point and theres like 2/3 of the story only about xenomorphs