Michael Fassbender talks his new Alien: Covenant robot Walter
One of the most anticipated franchise movies of next year is 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott’s prequel-sequel Alien: Covenant, and during an exclusive chat with star Michael Fassbender for Assassin’s Creed today, we asked him how his new android role Walter differs from the nefarious antics of Prometheus‘s David, who also shows up for the new film.
“I think Walter’s a real different kettle of fish,” Fassbender told us. “David was definitely a work-in-progress, somewhat of a prototype I suppose. The elements of him that were the human elements I think people found a little disturbing, so Walter’s more of a straightforward robot. Pretty logical, much more of a servant without the ego.”
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It sounds like Walter has more in common with a helpful robot like Bishop from Aliens as opposed to Ian Holm’s “twitchy” Ash in Scott’s original Alien. The logical aspect might also give him a kind of Spock-like demeanor, but we’ll have to wait and see if some other fundamental flaw will show itself in Walter.
Michael Fassbender stars in the film along with Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down), Demián Bichir (The Hateful Eight), Jussie Smolett (Empire), Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), Callie Hernandez (Machete Kills), and Billy Crudup (Watchmen). Noomi Rapace is also expected to reprise her role as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, and James Franco will have a role as the Captain of the title ship.
Set as the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with Prometheus, Alien: Covenant connects directly to Ridley Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. It begins with the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy. There, the crew discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
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Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Michael Green (Green Lantern) are providing the Alien: Covenant screenplay, which Ridley Scott once again directs.
Alien: Covenant will burst into theaters on May 19, 2017.
