8 Sci-Fi Movies Built On A Lie

5. Prometheus

lucy scarlett johansson
20th Century Fox

Since the early part of pre-production on Prometheus, Sir Ridley Scott insisted, insisted, insisted that Prometheus was definitely not a prequel to Alien.

Sir Ridley went hard across any and all press outlets to make everyone clear that Prometheus wouldn't serve as any sort of lead-in to Scott's iconic 1979 picture. Only, y'know, Prometheus totally was 100% an Alien prequel.

Scott had lauded Prometheus as a completely original story, going on to describe the project to The Guardian as "a new, grand mythology and universe" and how he'd found the "singular tale [he'd] been searching for".

These proclamations from Scott were in stark contrast to his initial plan to do a two-part Alien prequel, and thus he went hard to hammer home the point that those Alien prequel plans had been scrapped in favour of a completely new story and property.

By the time Prometheus hit the silver screen in 2012, though, it soon became perfectly clear that Sir Ridley had either been telling porky pies or had had second thoughts over his plan of attack for Prometheus - for Prometheus was totally an Alien prequel.

Going even further, Sir Ridley Scott followed Prometheus up in 2017 with another Alien prequel, Alien: Covenant, to further tether Prometheus to Alien.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.