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With Alien: Romulus releasing in theaters last week, Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus is back in the spotlight. The prequel is set many years before the events of the first film in the series and sees the crew of the titular ship travel to the distant moon of LV-233. They travel there in search of the origins of humanity only to find something that will cause its extinction.
Warning: Spoilers for the above-mentioned films to follow.
The reason Prometheus is back in conversation is because Alien: Romulus directly connects to the film in major ways. In the third act of Romulus, the black pathogen—better known as the black goo among the fandom—from the 2012 prequel returns. Considering that the prequel never really fully explained the black goo itself, Romulus confirmed exactly why Weyland-Yutani was after it.
While Romulus confirmed that Weyland-Yutani was looking to use the black goo to enhance humans, many fans are still confused by its origins and exactly why the Engineers had it with them in Prometheus. It is confirmed that the black goo can mutate a species or even kill it, but its origins still remain a mystery and have been subject to a massive debate among fans online.
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The black pathogen in Prometheus can mutate species
In Prometheus, we are first introduced to the black pathogen in the opening scene of the film. In the scene, an Engineer can be seen drinking the pathogen over a waterfall, which slowly causes his body to disintegrate. However, his DNA can later be seen regrouping in the water, which eventually ends up giving birth to life on Earth.
While the black pathogen itself remains a mystery, through the course of Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and Alien: Romulus it is explained that it can lead to mutations as well. The mutation itself is dangerous because the host of the black pathogen can turn violent and attack those who are near it.
Alongside that, it can also lead to the birth of creatures, as was seen with the Neomorphs in Alien: Covenant. It can also be further reverse-engineered from a Xenomorph's DNA, as was revealed in Alien: Romulus.
What is the black pathogen's origins?
One of the biggest questions of the Alien franchise is exactly who created the black pathogen and how did the Engineers get it. However, the question has gone unanswered, which has led fans to come out with their own theories. In the above-posted thread, fans debated that it ultimately "doesn't matter" who created the pathogen, but rather there is a deeper truth behind it.
"It doesn’t matter. The Engineer’s were an imperfect race who created another imperfect race, who created David who was artificial, but free from the perceived flaws of his forefathers. Whoever created the Engineers were therefore flawed just like their creations," said one fan.
"I'm more curious if they had already created the Xenos only because of the mural in Prometheus and if David just copied whatever formula was needed to grow them," another fan theorized.
On the other hand, fans believed it to be their own "hubris" too.
"I feel like it was something they discovered, tried to backwards engineer it for good and ended up falling to their own hubris," theorized another fan.
Another fan in the thread pointed towards the beginning of Prometheus to help explain its origins. He said:
"They use the black liquid to terraform planets. The opening scene he drinks the black liquid, and his DNA is distributed into the water supply. That was earth before humans arrived."
A fan in the thread also pointed towards the original script of Prometheus that gave a clear answer to its origins.
"They created it. Allegedly in the original script they created the pathogen to send to earth because we didn’t appreciate the natural order of life. Which is why the engineer is hostile to Waylen and his desire to live longer," pointed out the fan.
While the origins of the black pathogen still remain a mystery, one can't deny that the concept is certainly intriguing.
Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Alvarez and starring Cailee Spaeny, is playing in theaters now.
