Is Alien vs Predator canon? Spinoff franchise & theories explained

With Alien Romulus hitting screens this week, we ask a question that lies at the heart of the long-running franchise: is Alien vs Predator canon?

The Alien series launched with Ridley Scott’s horror masterpiece in 1979, which was followed by James Cameron’s Aliens in 1987, one of the best action movies ever made.

A pair of direct sequels followed in the shape of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, and Scott later returned to the franchise for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

But along the way, there was a crossover that started life as a joke in Predator 2, then got turned into a hugely successful comic book and video game, before hitting the big screen. Here we explain how those films fit into the wider Alien universe.

Alien vs Predator will never be canon

Alien vs Predator is not canon. While the film features Facehuggers and Xenomorphs, it isn’t part of the official Alien franchise.

Here’s how writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson views Alien vs Predator, via a 2004 interview with the BBC: “AVP is not trying to be Alien or Aliens, and it’s not trying to be Predator. Those are genius movies. The impact that these creatures had on audiences was immense.

“But 26 years on, and dozens of comic books later, everyone knows what the Alien looks like. You’ve got to do something different with it, and make a slightly different movie. So in a way we were definitely making an Alien and a Predator movie, but a different one from the one the other directors had made.”

Anderson was careful to not step on the toes of the Alien franchise, so he made sure his storyline remained consistent with the Alien movies.

Speaking to Movie Magic, Anderson said: “You can’t have an alien running around the city now, because it would’ve been written up and everyone will know about it. So there’s nothing in this movie that contradicts anything that already exists.”

But Alien vs Predator delivers backstory for the titular creatures… that Ridley Scott chose to completely ignore in 2012 movie Prometheus. So once Scott and screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof put their alien origin onscreen, any suggestion that AvP is canon was squashed.

Where does AvP fit in the Alien timeline?

Alien vs Predator was released in 2004, sandwiched between the original quadrilogy that spanned 1979-1997, and the more recent iteration, which is 2012-2017, and Alien Romulus in 2024.

Here’s the timeline of all the movies:

• Alien vs. Predator (2004)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2004)
• Prometheus (2089/2093)
• Alien: Covenant (2104)
• Alien (2122)
• Alien Romulus (approximately 2142)
• Aliens (2179)
• Alien 3 (2179)
• Alien: Resurrection (2381)

Opinions and fan theories

Not only does Alien Ridley Scott consider AvP to be non-canon, he hasn’t actually seen the film. While speaking to Empire in the above video, Scott was asked if he’d watched Alien vs Predator.

“No,” comes the immediate response, followed by laughter. “I couldn’t quite do that. I couldn’t quite take that step.”

Conversely, during a 2006 interview, Aliens director Cameron confessed to being a fan, saying: “To me, [Alien vs Predator] was Frankenstein Meets Werewolf. It was Universal just taking their assets and starting to play them off against each other… then I saw Alien vs Predator, and it was actually pretty good. I think of the five Alien films, I’d rate it third.”

However, if the film isn’t part of the Alien franchise, there’s a theory that it’s canon to the Predator films. After all, the concept kicked off with a background gag in Predator 2, where an alien skull can be glimpsed aboard the Predator ship.

“Alien vs Predator is indeed canon within the Predator franchise but is set in its own universe separate from Aliens,” states one Reddit thread. “Predators are intertwined within human history as shown through the flashback scene in AVP. Predators provided humans with the knowledge and in exchange, demanded sacrifice in order to cultivate the Alien species for The Hunt.”

The fan theory continues: “P1 and P2 strongly suggest that the Predators are deeply connected with humans and Earths history, this directly correlates AVP’s storyline and plot.

“AVP1 and AVP2 are not connected in any shape or form to the Alien franchise but indeed canon spinoffs of the Predator franchise. They simply exist in similar but separate universes/timelines.”

The very much canon Alien: Romulus is in cinemas now. For more on the movie, here’s the reason for the Romulus title, details of how to get the Alien popcorn bucket, and news of the film’s box office potential.