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 Yautja (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 Yautja in general, and whether or not the Engineers actually created the Yautja 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 Yautja 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 Yautja 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 Yautja (and presumably the Amengi) have apparently only existed for thousands of years. Although this point gets a little but complicated considering the Yautja 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 Yautja 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 Yautja being guilty of stolen Engineer technology.

Also considering humanity received their technological advancement which allowed them to travel into deep space from acquired Yautja technology (via Yutani Corp working together with Project Stargazer and later with Weyland Corp), it may even be reasonable to suggest that the Yautja 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 the 2012 film Prometheus, with related consequences regarding 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 Yautja 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 Yautja being successful and powerful warriors.

Conflicts between Engineers and Predators

In the 2007 film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, we see a trophy room aboard a Yautja spacecraft which harbors the skull of a member of the Space Jockey species as first introduced in the 1979 film Alien, a species which bears some relationship to the Engineers and pilots the infamous Derelict spacecraft crashed on the moon LV-426 (which also harbored a batch of Xenomorphs in their Ovomorph stage, a species apparently created by the Engineers) and 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 the 2012 film Prometheus and which also appeared in the 2017 sequel Alien: Covenant.

This clearly demonstrates that this clan had been in contact with and hunted Space Jockeys and quite possibly even Engineers, and couple this with the fact that Engineers and Yautja seem to very strongly despise and engage in battle with each other, as seen in the Fire and Stone comic book series, this could even suggest some ancient feud between the alien races. 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 the Xenomorphs (as created by the Engineers) for their own ritualistic purposes in demonstrating Yautja as victorious conquerors, and this concept would only be further adapted in the 2018 film The Predator which reveals an advanced race of Yautja 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 Yautja even had some yet undisclosed relevance to the crash of the Derelict spacecraft on the moon LV-426.

Conclusion

The question of the origins of the Yautja as they relate to the Engineers remain an unsolved mystery, albeit it seems 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.