While many aspects of the Alien vs Predator franchise has been met with praise by fans overall–such as the comics, novels, and video games–the area where it’s decidedly lacking is the movies, which is why there aren’t any AvP films still being made today (at least, for now). However, just because the movies weren’t everyone’s favorite piece of AvP media doesn’t mean they weren’t canon. In fact, one Alien vs Predator comic all-but explicitly states that the events of the AvP films did happen within the same continuity as both the Alien and Predator franchises–and there’s an in-world reason as to why the events of those films simply weren’t remembered.
Alien vs Predator was released in 2004, and while it wasn’t the greatest piece of cinema to hit the silver screen, it actually did a great job of bringing to life everything fans loved about the original Dark Horse Comics series. Aside from the setting and ancient-civilization backstory, the movie might as well have been a play-by-play of the original Aliens vs Predator comic, complete with at least one Predator willing to work alongside a human to stop the Xenomorphs and ending with a human being accepted into that Predator’s clan following her unwitting completion of their Blooding Ritual. Even the sequel, Alien vs Predator: Requiem, brought to life the iconic beast unique to this amalgam-franchise, the Predalien (which first appeared in Aliens vs Predator: Duel). So, for the most part, the movies hit it out of the park–but overall, fans just didn’t agree, and the franchise was killed following the completion of this particular arc. However, within the realm of the comics, this storyline actually continued far into the future, as it was revealed to be a part of the established lore all along.
Alien vs Predator Movies are Canon, & the Big Deletion Explains How
In Alien vs Predator: Civilized Beasts by Mike Kennedy and Roger Robinson, a colony of humans who have been trapped on a hostile planet for some time finally receive some good news as a rescue vessel descends upon their camp. Unfortunately, while the appearance of the ship is good news, the information those on the ship have with them is decidedly less so. As it turns out, the ship would have been there sooner, but they had to avoid being seen by a Predator ship that was evidently flying around this planet–and before long, the humans discovered why. Apparently, this planet is one that the Predators have been hunting Xenomorphs on for possibly hundreds if not thousands of years, and that realization came after the humans found a Predator pyramid on the planet’s surface, with writing and hieroglyphs reminiscent of ancient civilizations on Earth–including one in particular that the team’s synthetic couldn’t quite place, but knew existed.
At this point in Alien vs Predator canon, an event had occurred known as the Big Deletion which was a result of a virus created by humanity to destroy the synthetics, but what happened instead was the deletion of every memory drive within humanity’s collective archive. This comic takes place after AvP's Big Deletion, though some information that was lost still remained in little fragments within the synthetics’ memory drives–which is why this pyramid looks so familiar. The Predator pyramid the humans find in this issue is the same one from 2004’s Alien vs Predator, just on a different planet. While that alone should be enough to earn the films’ 'canon-status’, the comic goes one step further by actually referencing the events of those films, even if the reference was subtle.
So, because of the Big Deletion, the other Alien and Predator films simply didn’t remember the events of the two Alien vs Predator movies–but, as previously stated, just because they aren’t remembered doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, and this comic confirms that the events of those films are, in fact, canon.