In Alien: Covenant, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) refers to the Xenomorph as a 'Son of a bitch'. While in Aliens, Ripley meets the Alien Queen and utters the classic line: "Get away from her you bitch!"
So which is it? A bitch or a son of one? Or does it vary?
Digital Spy sat down with director Ridley Scott to pose the big question – The Xenomorph in Alien: Covenant: is it a boy or a girl?
"No, I think it's a hybrid, I think it could be either," explained Scott. "The next thing is: could he re-evolve himself? Certain insects are hermaphrodites. Insects can be hermaphrodites. Animals maybe can. I'm trying to think of animals that are hermaphrodites. Sea creatures, maybe.
"There's a hermaphrodite-al idea sitting there within them. I don't think they copulate, no. That would not happen, because I think they're so fundamentally primordial, but with extraordinary intelligence. That's a very dangerous entity."
So there you go – Xenomorphs are neither male nor female and they don't have sex. Which is interesting for reasons that are SPOILERS. If you haven't seen Covenant, below contains major SPOILERS for the film.
Still here?
Ok, so it's interesting because in Covenant we see the creation of the Xenomorph. Basically David perfects the Alien eggs using Elizabeth Shaw. How does he get eggs from DNA? We don't know. And nor does Ridley Scott - here's how he explains it:
"[David] was using the DNA [of Shaw] to cross-fertilise with the black stuff, to see what would evolve. He kept getting mutations, and he called them his beasts – his beautiful beasts.
"He said, 'Now I want to show you my success.' And it's an egg. I don't know how you go from DNA to the egg, but I'm not going to ask the question. But I want to use the egg. So everybody goes from that, the original film, going, 'Oh my goodness, there's the egg.' That's what they were missing in Prometheus. So it's like: 'Here we go.'
"And Billy [Crudup] looks in it. Don't look in the egg."
No Billy, don't look in the egg.
The facehugger comes from the egg, implants into a human, resulting in a chest burster which rapidly grows and evolves into a Xenomorph.
But in Aliens the alien queen has laid the eggs. Does this mean Aliens isn't canon? Well no, not necessarily, but it certainly raises questions.
Alien: Covenant is out now in cinemas.
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