20th Century Fox’s grand Alien franchise has a spotty track record when it comes to synthetics. Those bleeding-edge androids have cropped up in practically all canonical entries into the series, and range from the heroic (Bishop in Aliens) to the wildly deranged (Ash in Alien). Typically, they place the interests of Weyland-Yutani above all else, and that’s an arc we’ve seen play out in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.
Four years ago, it was Michael Fassbender who assumed control of the android David, who failed rather spectacularly in his attempt to establish a dialog with the towering Engineers. But don’t fret; Fassbender’s headless robot will be back for next year’s Alien: Covenant, but it seems David won’t be the actor’s only role.
[zergpaid]Chatting to The Irish Times (via Alien-Covenant), Fassbender tentatively revealed that he’ll actually be playing two androids: David, and the all-new Walter, a synthetic that is said to be an updated model of “The David 8” that first appeared in Prometheus. He’ll be on board the Covenant ship alongside captain Danny McBride, Katherine Waterson and the remainder of the crew.
Here’s what Fassbender had to share – notice that the actor continues to draw attention to the film’s horror elements.
“I am allowed to say I am playing two robots – Walter and David. I think what’s great about it is that Ridley has gone back to the DNA of Alien, the horror element of that. But it also has the scope and the scale of Prometheus. Ridley has cut it already. He is a machine. He is an incredible human being and he was in such good form. He is such an imaginative and mischievous figure.”
Alien: Covenant docks in theaters on August 4, 2017. A smattering of spoiler-ish photos emerged late last week for Ridley Scott’s sequel, shedding light on the redesigned Xenomorphs and Facehuggers that will soon be stalking your nightmares in little under a year’s time.