Is Alien: Romulus a sequel to Prometheus and Covenant? Four connections you probably missed

There’s a new addition to the Alien timeline, but how closely does Romulus connect to the last two movies in the franchise? We discovered four Easter eggs linking back to Prometheus and Covenant.

The Alien Romulus release date is now here, and with every new Alien movie, there comes an obvious question: how does this fit into the bigger picture?

It’s a question that concerned David and Peter Weyland way back in Prometheus, leading to the hideous creation of the Xenomorph. But we’re not about to meddle with evolution here, don’t worry.

No, we simply want to highlight some of the connects between Romulus and other films in the Alien timeline.

Romulus is not a direct sequel

First off, it’s important to know that Alien: Romulus is not a direct sequel to the prequels, Prometheus and Covenant.

Romulus takes place in the time period between Alien and Aliens, in the year 2142. That puts it 20 years after Ripley’s first mission, and 37 years prior to her return in James Cameron’s sequel.

It also means the new movie is set just 38 years after the events of Covenant, and 49 years after Prometheus. But, it is not necessarily a continuation of those stories.

It has been made clear in a piece from The Hollywood Reporter that Romulus is “unconnected to the previous movies.”

Connections to Prometheus and Covenant explained

That’s not entirely true, though. There are four connections between Romulus and the prequels, including mentions of Prometheus, a musical cue, and some foreboding black goo.

Black goo

20th Century Studios

Remember all that gross black liquid we saw in Prometheus that the Engineers were using to mess with the planet and create monsters? Of course you do, it’s nightmare-inducing seeing the way it affected anyone who came into contact with it.

The black goo was home to the snake-like creatures that killed Millburn and Fifield, and it was also used by David to infect Holloway.

In Romulus, the folks on board the station are carrying out experiments on Xenomorphs and Facehuggers, and they extract a chemical referred to as “pure life”. It looks remarkably similar to the goo David was slipping in people’s drinks in Prometheus.

The vases

20th Century Studios

Closely linked to that black goo was the vase-like vessels we see in Prometheus. They’re in the same location as the goo, and even start to secrete the substance when they’re touched.

In Covenant we learn that David essentially dropped a whole bunch of these onto the Engineers in order to eradicate them.

Alien: Romulus features a holographic representation of those vases (or urns, maybe they’re urns). Seems people haven’t learned that bad things happen when you transport dangerous pathogens in these containers.

Project Prometheus

The most glaring connection to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi movies comes when Rook (the reincarnation of Ian Holm’s Ash) talks of Project Prometheus.

That was, of course, Peter Weyland’s master plan to evolve humanity beyond its current means (and beyond natural limits). It was this project that led the original crew in Prometheus to the Engineer’s planet, and sparked the events of the subsequent films.

Prometheus music

There’s also a nod to the Prometheus score in Alien: Romulus. The main theme from the 2012 movie plays in the credits for the new movie.

Composer Benjamin Wallfisch has created a new score for Fede Alvarez’s movie. However, the production borrowed Marc Streitenfeld and Harry Gregson-Williams’ musical cues for the Romulus credits.

Will Ridley Scott ever make a third prequel movie?

Covenant ended on a cliffhanger with David revealing he had killed Walter, and was now in charge of the spacecraft carrying human colonists and embryos, heading for Origae-6.

That was back in 2017, and we sadly may never get a sequel to Covenant to conclude that story. So, if you’re hoping to see Michael Fassbender return to the Alien franchise, don’t count on it.

Both Prometheus and Covenant made decent money, but they received mixed reviews (to put it kindly). Hardened fans of the series were unhappy with creative choices made, and there is simply not enough demand for a threequel.

Scott himself has talked about what that third movie would look like, telling Empire we’d have seen a world shaped by David’s deranged mind.

However, with Scott moving on to other projects, and the Alien franchise getting this reboot with Romulus, it’s highly unlikely there’ll be space for David’s story to continue.

Speaking of Scott’s other projects, here’s what we know about Gladiator 2. Or you could read our love letter to Alien 3, learn more about the Alien: Romulus age rating, and find out if Sigourney Weaver will be back as Ripley.