Was Alien: Covenant setting up the arrival of the Queen Mother Alien to the franchise? Despite directing a stone-cold classic in the original Alien, Ridley Scott wasn't offered the chance to return for 1986's Aliens. Early in the development cycle on 1992's Alien 3, he was asked about returning but passed to work on other projects. It would be over 30 years before Scott finally returned to the series for Prometheus, a prequel/spin-off depicting a group of scientists flying off to a distant planet to uncover the origin of the human race.
Prometheus - which explains why the Engineers were going to Earth - was an expensive, ambitious blockbuster that dared to ask some intriguing questions, but it suffered from a messy script and unlikable protagonists. Scott also decided the titular xenomorph itself had become played out due to various sequels, so the creature was (mostly) absent from the movie. The film was a success despite some disappointing reviews, but the studio insisted that the Xenomorph return for Alien: Covenant. In the end, this sequel tried to blend the more philosophical tone of Prometheus with a b-movie Alien sequel, and while it had its moments, the overall reception was weaker than its 2012 predecessor.
While Scott's Alien prequels never settled into a comfortable groove, they at least attempted to craft an epic sci-fi saga that took the series in new directions. A Covenant ended on arguably the darkest note in the saga, revealing that crazed android David 8 (Michael Fassbender) had replaced his kindly doppelganger Walter on the Covenant spaceship, and planned to use its hibernating humans as hosts for his "perfect" creations. This set up a Dr. Moreau-like scenario for a potential third Alien prequel, which was also hinted at in the Blu-ray bonus feature Alien: Advent. This short was an epilogue of sorts, with Fassbender's David sending a message back to Weyland-Yutani, briefing them on his experiments and hinting Covenant lead Daniels (Katherine Waterson) was either going to be turned into an Alien Queen or even the Queen Mother Xenomorph.
Alien's Queen Mother Xenomorph Explained
In the expended Alien universe, the Queen Mother Xenomorph first appeared in the comic Aliens: Earth War. This was the concluding chapter of a Dark Horse comic trilogy that featured Hicks and Newt finally reuniting with Ripley after Earth has been overrun by Xenomorphs. The trio hatch a plan to retrieve the Queen Mother Alien - who has a telepathic link to her brood - from their homeworld and bring her back to Earth. The Queen Mother Xenomorph is the leader of the species, and they hope to use her to lure the other creatures into a trap that would wipe them all out.
Alien: Covenant's epilogue seemed to be setting up that David would use Daniels to morph her into a Queen or Queen Mother Xenomorph, possibly in hopes of controlling his creations. The Covenant ship gave David a big canvas to work from in terms of his experiments, and he seemed to have big plans for Daniels that would "change everything." While the Queen Mother Alien is one possibility, Ridley Scott - who has made many horror movies - famously has little interest in the series outside of his own entries, making it unlikely he'd even heard of the comics that featured the creature. That said, he also appeared to be rewriting franchise canon - even suggesting David himself created the Xenomorphs - so it wouldn't be a huge leap to coming up with the Queen Mother Xenomorph concept on his own.