Weyland-Yutanis Plan for the Xenomorph is More Horrific Than Alien Fans Thought

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus #1! Weyland-Yutani is the evil company in the Alien franchise that has been after the Xenomorph since the very first film, and the reason why has always been a bit ambiguous. Sure, it’s been stated several times that Weyland-Yutani wants to use the Xenomorph as a living weapon, given that its biology makes it the perfect killing machine. But, why does WY want a living weapon? Well, after the latest installment in the Alien franchise, fans finally have the answer - and it’s way more horrific than they thought.

Alien: Romulus #1 by Zac Thompson and Daniel Picciotto is the official prequel to the 2024 film, which tells fans exactly how the Xenomorph from the 1979 movie (Big Chap) slaughtered everyone at Renaissance Station. As shown in the movie, the WY scientists located Big Chap from the wreckage of the Nostromo, and brought the alien aboard the Renaissance. Then, as this comic details, a couple of rogue security officers release Big Chap from its stasis in order to kill it, but instead, they unleash it upon the entire crew.

While this may seem horrible, it is actually a major win for humanity within Alien canon. Before Big Chap is unleashed, the two goals of these scientists are revealed. The first is what fans know from watching the movie: refine the Black Goo that the Xenomorphs’ bodies produce, and use it to ‘evolve’ humanity. The second is only revealed in this comic: clone the Xenomorphs and weaponize them against failed colonies within the ‘Building Better Worlds’ initiative. In other words, use the Xenomorphs to kill innocent people who trusted Weyland-Yutani to provide a better life for them on far-off worlds.

Why Weyland-Yutani Wanted to Use Xenomorphs to Kill Innocent People in Its Own Colonies

Aside from trying to capture the Xenomorph, Weyland-Yutani’s driving initiative was its ‘Building Better Worlds’ campaign. The company had the technology to terraform even the most barren moons and planets across the galaxy, and there was no shortage of people willing to boldly go where no man had gone before. In fact, fans who watched Aliens and Alien: Romulus got a pretty good idea of what these off-world colonies were like. Sure, they were harsh, but they represented the expansion of humanity across the stars.

So, why would Weyland-Yutani spend all this time and money creating off-world colonies only to try and come up with a way to destroy them? Simple: cutting financial losses. While these colonies might represent humanity’s interstellar expansion, Weyland-Yutani wasn’t ‘Building Better Worlds’ for the sake of humanity, but its shareholders. First and foremost, these off-world settlements were mining colonies, and they were there to strip any given world of its resources. But, what happens when a settlement dries up? Or that world didn’t have much to offer in the first place? Well, that’s where the Xenomorphs would come in.

As this comic touches on, it’s incredibly expensive to extract an entire settlement of people from a failed colony and then either bring them back to Earth or find another settlement to integrate them into. It’d be much easier and cost-effective if those people could just be killed, and the settlement abandoned. But, if Weyland-Yutani just left entire settlements to die, it would be a PR nightmare, and the entire ‘Building Better Worlds’ campaign would crumble. However, if these settlements were attacked by an alien species, the company wouldn’t be responsible for their deaths.

Weyland-Yutani’s Plan for the Xenomorphs Proves Why It's Alien’s REAL Main Villain

The Xenomorph Might Be the Monster, but Weyland-Yutani is the True Antagonist

It’s been clear from the start that Weyland-Yutani is the real villain in Alien, even when compared to the visceral horror of the Xenomorph itself. However, with this added detail, the company has never been more evil. Weyland-Yutani wants to use the Xenomorph to kill countless people with impunity and deniability just to save money. These people trusted the company, trusted that it would, indeed, build them better worlds, and quite literally put their lives in Weyland-Yutani’s hands. And all the company wants to do is find a way to kill them in the most convenient way possible.

This explanation is way worse than anything Alien fans had assumed about Weyland-Yutani’s intentions with the Xenomorph. Initially, it was assumed that the company wanted to monopolize the Xenomorph species as a living weapon of mass destruction, and sell it to the United Systems Military. Though it could also be theorized that Weyland-Yutani wanted to use the Xenomorph against the United Systems Government, and effectively make itself a galactic dictatorship. Or, the Xenomorph could be used to wipe out other alien civilizations (assuming there are any) before conquering their planet to further the ‘Building Better Worlds’ initiative.

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While all of those assumed motives are horrible, there’s something especially repugnant about the company dropping Xenomorphs on its own settlements if those colonies start under performing. Not during times of war or to further expand humanity’s reach across the cosmos, but just to save money. Fans didn’t know this until the release of the Alien: Romulus prequel comic, but now that they do, it’s clear that Weyland-Yutani’s plan for the Xenomorph is more horrific than they thought.

Alien: Romulus #1 by 20th Century Studios is available now.

Alien

The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott's 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity's encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.