Predators and Engineers - Hunting the Creators

Introduction

The relationship between the Engineers, as first introduced in the 2012 film Prometheus (with relations to the Space Jockey of the 1979 film Alien), and the Predators, as first introduced in the 1987 film Predator, has always been a mystery, and for this article I would like to briefly address what little is to know on this topic, along with the question of the origins of the Predators in general, and whether or not the Engineers actually created the Predators through their cosmic experiments of seeding many dead worlds with new life.

Are Engineers the creators of the Predators?

On May 5th, 2015, AvPGalaxy published an interview with Christopher Sebela, writer of the 2014-2015 comic book Alien vs. Predator: Fire and Stone, recording the following exchange;

"AvPG – Another of our members, Guan Thwei 1992, wants to know more about the relationship between the Engineers and the Predators. “Elden kept saying things such as “my people, the Engineers, we created all this” while fighting Predators, yet he looked at one of them and said “I don’t know what you are” which seems to send mixed messages on whether Engineers created Predators or have no part in their creation nor are they too familiar with them either.”

CS – There are some questions that we didn’t want to answer. Some of them we weren’t able to answer, it wasn’t our place to give that answer, so we danced around the idea of whether the Engineers created the Predators, but it wasn’t something we intended on actually getting into." (See; Chris Sebela Interview)

Who are the Amengi?

The 2006 novel Predator: Forever Midnight and the 2020 video game Predator: Hunting Grounds were the first titles to address the alien species known as the Amengi, a race of technologically advanced insectoids which had a major impact on the evolution of the creatures called Yautja (Predators) from their conquered and captured ancestors the "Hish" (or "Hish-qu-Ten") as well as their own technological revolution following their rebellion against their Amengi enslavement. This raises an interesting question regarding whether or not the Hish were a product of the black goo pathogen and genetic accelerant created by the Engineers and deployed on the Predator homeworld, and whether this was the same case with the Amengi and their own homeworld, just like they did with planet Earth and humanity.

It would make a lot of sense given that the Engineers have apparently existed for billions of years while the Predator (and presumably the Amengi) have apparently only existed for thousands of years. Although this point gets a little but complicated considering the Predator were seemingly capable of time-travelling, as suggested by the 2018 film The Predator which portrays the Fugitive Predator bending and travelling through space-time (and would have included an alternate ending confirming the time travelling by featuring Ellen Ripley and Rebecca "Newt" Jorden from the future), and the 2007 film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem which portrays the Predator trophy room including a Triceratops skull. The ability to time travel was also suggested possible by the Engineers in the Life and Death comic book series, further hinting at Amengi and Predators being guilty of stolen Engineer technology.

Also considering humanity received their technological advancement which allowed them to travel into deep space from acquired Predator technology (via Yutani Corp working together with Project Stargazer and later with Weyland Corp), it may even be reasonable to suggest that the Predator technology, as originally received from the Amengi, could have originally been taken from the Engineers, which plays right into the whole concept of the Greek god or idol Prometheus who took the fire from the gods and gave it to their human creations, allowing them in turn to become gods, a character and concept which were an inspiration of Project Prometheus from Prometheus, showing its consequences with regards to the divinity-obsessed David android featured in the 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant. This concept of desired divinity was further exemplified in the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator where the Predator arrive at an ancient Earth to be worshipped as gods by humanity, using the Engineers' Xenomorph creations to be killed off in ritualistic hunts as demonstrations of the Predator being successful and powerful warriors.

Conflicts between Engineers and Predators

In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, we see a trophy room aboard a Predator spacecraft which harbors the skull of a member of the Space Jockey species from Alien, a species which bears some relationship to the Engineers and pilot of the infamous Derelict spacecraft crashed on the moon LV-426, seen in the same film and also in the 1986 sequel Aliens, which is of the same type as the Juggernaut spacecraft piloted by "the last Engineer" from the planet LV-223 in Prometheus and which also appeared in Alien: Covenant.

This clearly demonstrates that Predators have been in contact with and hunted Space Jockeys and Engineers, and couple this with the fact that Engineers and Predators seem to very strongly despise and engage in battle with each other, as seen in the Fire and Stone and Life and Death comic book series, implying an ancient feud between the two species. Perhaps even being another example of a creation of the Engineers rebelling against their creators and seeking to overpower them through cosmic warfare, even acquiring and utilizing Aliens for their own ritualistic purposes in demonstrating Predators as victorious conquerors.

This particular concept of Predators being involved in cosmic conflicts would only be further adapted in The Predator which reveals an advanced race of Predators using genetic engineering to improve themselves and preparing to conquer other civilizations and claim new territory, expanding their range of dominance across the galaxy. Perhaps the Predators even had some yet undisclosed relevance to the crash of the Derelict spacecraft on the moon LV-426. The 2020 NECA Predator 2 30th Anniversary Ultimate Predator series of action figures also featured conflicts with Engineers within their own Juggernaut vessels. XM Studios also produced the King Predator figure with the same theme.

Conclusion

The question of the origins of the Predators as they relate to the Engineers remain an unsolved mystery, albeit incredibly likely that the Engineers could be to blame for their existence, which would also add further motivation for them to be presented as such mortal enemies.