7 Biggest Changes The First Omen Makes To The Omen Franchise

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The First Omen

While The First Omen is a prequel to 1976’s classic horror movie The Omen, the new release does alter some of the original movie’s lore and backstory. The First Omen takes place before the original movie, with the prequel’s story setting up the birth of Damien. In 1976’s original horror hit, Damien was revealed to be the offspring of a jackal and the Devil. The First Omen’s twist completely rewrites this story, altering the original movie’s premise as a result. Although Damien is born in The First Omen, many twists make his birth more complicated than it seemed.

Nell Tiger Free’s Margaret is a young novitiate who moves from America to Rome to take the veil. Upon her arrival at a Roman convent, she sparks up a friendship with a troubled young girl named Carlita. After a string of strange occurrences, Margaret becomes convinced that the convent’s occupants intend to impregnate Carlita with the Antichrist. However, the twist ending of The First Omen reveals that Margaret is their real target and the nightmarish impregnation has already happened. Margaret realizes far too late that she is pregnant and gives birth in a subversive twist on The Omen’s ending.

7

The First Omen Gives Damien A Twin Sister

The Omen’s Villain Had A Sibling All Along

The biggest change that the prequel makes to the original movie is when The First Omen reveals that Damien has a secret twin sister. Damien’s secret sister is left for dead, alongside his mother Margaret, when the cult members burn down the underground lair where she gave birth. However, Carlita saves both Margaret and her baby and the trio are next seen living together in a remote mountainside cabin years later. Although Carlita, Margaret, and Damien’s twin sister seem happy, their tranquility is soon spoiled when Ralph Ineson’s Father Brennan returns.

Although The First Omen’s pregnancy horror story is over at this stage, Margaret’s struggle has only just begun. Brennan warns her that the church will seek out both her and Damien’s sister, telling her that she must keep a close eye on her child. Since Margaret doesn’t appear in the original movie trilogy, this is the biggest change to The Omen’s story that occurs in the prequel. None of the original Omen movies reference Damien’s twin sister so, despite Brennan’s dire warnings, it seems as though the church never found out about her.

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The First Omen Reveals Damien’s Mother Survived

Margaret Lives In The First Omen’s Twist Ending

In The Omen’s opening scene, a grief-stricken Robert Thorn is convinced to adopt a baby after his child dies during childbirth. Unbeknownst to his wife, he switches their baby out with Damien. The chaplain and nun who give him Damien reassure Gregory Peck’s antihero that the baby’s mother also died in childbirth. The First Omen proves that this isn’t true. Margaret doesn’t die while giving birth to Damien in The First Omen, although the cult does think that they have killed her when they burn down their underground lair and leave her for dead.

This change that The First Omen makes to The Omen’s canon isn’t too hard to excuse, since the chaplain and nun were likely aware that this was a lie. Not only is almost everyone in the convent in on the plan, but it is also Luz, Margaret’s free-spirited roommate, who stabs her in the prequel’s ending. Luz is later involved in handing the infant Damien over to the hospital staff, so the odds are that she told them Margaret died in childbirth. While she did think the fire killed her, Luz still knew this specific claim wasn’t true.

5

The First Omen Proves Damien’s Mother Wasn’t A Jackal

The Prequel Changes The Original Movie’s Damien Origins

Although The First Omen features another major retcon when it comes to the identity of Damien’s mother, this is arguably the most understandable of the movie’s numerous changes. In the original movie, Thorn is horrified to learn that Damien’s biological mother was, somehow, a jackal. The biology of this achievement is somewhat sidestepped since his father was Satan, so it is fair to assume that his conception and birth didn’t follow normal human rules of reproduction. That said, The First Omen reveals that Damien’s mother wasn’t a jackal but rather the very human Margaret.

There are two ways to interpret this change. One is that the jackal carcass that Thorn discovered in the grave of Damien’s mother was left there as part of the dark, Satanic ritual. Another is that the carcass belongs to the jackal-like demon that impregnates Margaret in The First Omen and Thorn simply misinterpreted what he found. Since the specifics of a jackal producing a human baby aren’t well understood, Thorn’s assumption that the jackal was the infant’s mother wasn’t necessarily correct. Instead, The First Omen’s demonic jackal was the baby’s father.

4

The First Omen Turned Damien’s Father Into A Jackal

Damien’s Father Filled The Jackal Role In The Prequel

This revelation is the other major retcon featured in the prequel. The First Omen reveals that Damien’s father was a demonic jackal, which was also an embodiment of Satan. This changes The Omen‘s franchise storyline a little, since the twist means that the church already had a form of the Antichrist in its possession well before Damien was born. In The Omen, Thorn learns that the church planned to get Damien into a position of political power while, in The First Omen, the church plans to use his influence to instill fear in the masses.

These motives are pretty similar, but the jackal demon that impregnates Margaret complicates proceedings. It seems unlikely that this jackal is intended to be the devil itself, since it is relatively small, controlled by a few humans, and seemingly burned to death in the finale. However, this raises the question of what exactly Damien’s father is in the prequel. The First Omen depicts Damien’s father as a giant jackal but doesn’t explain whether this thing is a demon, a form that Satan takes, a failed earlier attempt to bring about Antichrist’s birth, or something else.

3

The First Omen Reveals Margaret Was Also The Devil’s Child

Damien Wasn’t The First Human Child Born Of The Devil

Even though The First Omen’s positive reviews are well-earned, the logic of the movie’s story is a little tenuous. For example, The First Omen’s big twist hinges on the revelation that the cult doesn’t intend to get Carlita pregnant with the devil, but rather Margaret. It is strange that Margaret didn’t notice that she shared a birthday with Carlita, but it is entirely possible that the cult never told the heroine her real birthdate. However, what makes this revelation weirder is what it implies about Damien and Margaret.

The First Omen reveals that Damien isn’t the devil’s first human child, as both Margaret and Carlita were born of a jackal much like Damien and his twin. Brennan explains that the cult believes the jackal must mate with its own offspring to birth the Antichrist, but this doesn’t explain what category the devil’s original offspring fall into. It is not clear whether Carlita and Margaret are normal humans whose father happens to be a demonic jackal or if they are part-Antichrist and part-human.

2

The First Omen’s Survivors Make The Omen’s Plot Different

The First Omen’s Carlita and Margaret Will Likely Try To Stop Damien

Both Margaret and Carlita are brave heroic characters who resolve to fight the church in The First Omen’s ending, which contradicts the events of the original movie and its sequel. It is possible that both characters spent the entirety of the original Omen trilogy cowering in fear and hoping that the Antichrist wouldn’t come to disturb their idyllic, remote homestead, but it seems like Margaret is ready to take on the cult when Brennan warns her of their plans. This is strange, since Margaret, Carlita, and Damien’s twin never appear in the original movies.

To be fair, The First Omen’s sequels could introduce a new storyline where Margaret, Carlita, and Damien’s twin sister work together to stop him from assuming office and ending the world. However, this would explicitly rewrite the events of the original trilogy and retcon those earlier movies. The First Omen directly ties itself to the continuity of the 1976 movie when the villainous Luz and Cardinal Lawrence arrange for Robert Thorn to adopt Damien. As such, it is strange that Margaret and her family are set up as Damien’s potential enemies.

1

The First Omen’s Margaret Calls Damien’s Villainy Into Question

Margaret Becoming A Heroine Proves The Devil’s Child Isn’t Doomed

While establishing the existence of Damien’s twin sister is a major twist, The First Omen’s biggest retcon is a surprisingly subtle change. Throughout the prequel, both Carlita and Margaret are posited as The First Omen’s heroines. The duo does everything they can to stop the cult and, when they fail, they resolve to raise Damien’s twin sister together despite her origins. Thus, The First Omen calls into question whether Damien is doomed to become a villain, since Carlita, Margaret, and his sister all seem pretty well-adjusted despite their jackal demon parentage.

The cult demanded that the Antichrist be male, but there is no justification given for this outside of the religion’s underlying reliance on patriarchy. Although the jackal itself is clearly demonic, its evil hasn’t rubbed off on any of its earlier offspring and Damien’s sister seems like an adorable delight in the closing scenes. Thus, The First Omen sets up a huge Omen retcon by establishing that Damien may not be evil, which would rewrite the entire franchise. However, only time will tell if The First Omen’s follow-up takes this retcon and rewrites The Omen from this fresh perspective.