The ultimate Alien / Predator connection: Engineers altered Yautja DNA – Connecting all the films coherently

Buckle up. I've just had my first cup of coffee ☕ and a theory just popped in my head that could easily link and explain a permanent relationship between the entire Alien franchise and Predator franchise – bridging ALL the films, including The Predator.

What if: The Yautja are another seeded creation altered or mutated by the galaxy's mad scientist Engineers from Prometheus? What if Engineer influence is the cause for Yautja advancement and the basis for their own obsession with genetic manipulation?

Let's start with the Predator evolution. The Feral Predator from Prey marked an important milestone in Predator lore – showing us a more primitive Yautja; not just by technological standards, but by physical design as well. The facial structure dramatically differs from every known Yautja variant since. Sure, we could chalk it up to being simply a different race of Predator, but the emphasis on its primitive nature makes me think otherwise. Feral was an earlier version of Predator, before the species as a whole was manipulated genetically by Engineers.

Engineers upgrade Predator DNA, Yautja gain tremendous advancements in technological knowledge and their physical characteristics begin to change, making them slightly more humanoid. The eyes of the Feral are positioned high, angled and almost on the sides of its head. The next instance of Predator in 1987 sees Yautja with binocular vision, eyes front, like Humans. This kind of characteristic can't just happen by chance in the time span between Prey and the first Predator movie, not by our understanding of evolutionary time frames anyway. Furthermore, dreadlocks, limb proportions and mandible design is heavily altered by the time Dutch faces the Predator in the 80s.

Moving on – later iterations of Predator are revealed in Predators, showcasing different castes of Predator – the big ones (Super Predators) hunt the little ones. Remnants of a primitive link in the Yautja genetic chain? Or a mutation from Engineer influence? Either way, both Super Preds and the classic variants share more common physical characteristics besides size, suggesting a closer proximity along the same genetic chain than Feral does.

Next up, the impacts such influence has on different species. Prometheus suggests Engineers seeded planets with Humans or at least altered local DNA to eventually lead to the creation of Mankind. What got passed down through the Engineer genetic lineage however, were common traits and philosophical pursuits – creation and manipulation being a deep-seeded interest. Somewhere in our DNA resides a curiosity to search out our creator and moreover, become creators ourselves. We see the result of this by way of Weyland's attempts to create artificial persons / Synthetics and eventually attempting to harvest and harness the Engineer's own technology for ourselves. Alien: Romulus presented one angle of Weyland-Yutani's initiatives involving the medical advancement of Humankind by using the black goo – most certainly in hopes of evolving our own DNA too.

Notice the parallel here – in The Predator what did we learn about the Yautja at this moment in history? They've been genetically tampering with their own kind in an attempt to upgrade themselves. How? By harvesting the best killers from across the galaxy and splicing their own DNA with it to create a better, more efficient Predator. Sounds familiar.

Where did the Yautja come to find this obsession? As a superior race of physically and technologically advanced beings, who had already mastered interstellar travel, why the need to advance their biology? Weren't they already the Apex predator of the galaxy? Nope – I theorize their obsession to upgrade themselves stems from the same obsession Mankind finds within themselves, a remnant of DNA encoding passed down through the Engineers.

The Engineers spliced themselves with Humans and with Predators. Perhaps taking gambles on which species would advance the quickest or prove to be the more prominent replacement for whenever their reign comes to an end. As we know, every King has his reign...

By the time Mankind had achieved interstellar travel, Engineers were less commonly found throughout the cosmos – except for dormant silos on LV-223 and one of their homeworlds David discovered in Alien: Covenant. The Engineers represent an ancient form of life throughout the galaxy – a link in an infinite chain. Much like the Forerunners in Halo, their relics remain and their genetic influence will forever last as long as life continues, but their prodigies forever long for answers and search them out.

By Predator: Badlands, we know the two universes are intricately linked and perhaps lend more credit to this theory than what you might think. Why is Weyland-Yutani on Genna? To capture, research and exploit the Kalisk – the ultimate, unkillable predator. Weyland-Yutani are also well aware of the Yautja and their history, much like the Yautja are aware of mankind. I suspect by the time Badlands takes place, Yautja and Mankind (whether exclusively led by A.I. Weyland-Yutani or if Humans still exist) are closing in on the Apex title spot for the galaxy – who will reign Supreme? Which Engineer genetic offshoot will be superior? Yautja are as technologically advanced as they've ever been by Badlands and Weyland-Yutani are also, on par. I think Weyland-Yutani were trying to exploit the Kalisk to get a leg up on the Yautja, since the Kalisk remains one of the most difficult prey the Yautja have ever encountered.

My point is – the links are there. The foundation is set. Whether intentionally or not, it's easy to draw connections to explain these vast differences between films. I would love to see this realized in a future crossover, bridging ALL the films, Alien prequels and future Predator films into one shared, coherent universe.

Makes sense to me. What do you guys think? I'll keep my ringer on in case Dan Trachtenberg wants to flesh out these ideas further 🤣