Alien: Covenant – Michael Fassbender On The Difference In Playing Two Androids

Not everyone was a fan of Ridley Scott’s 2012 film, Prometheus. In fact, it may not be a big stretch to say that most hardcore Alien fans disliked Prometheus, as the connections to the main Alien franchise weren’t as clean as they wanted them to be. However, Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of the infinitely interesting David was one of the standout performances. The curious android was the source of many of the crew’s problems, and it’s his bitter, slighted personality that really drives most of the film.

Fans of the character will be happy to see that Fassbender will be back as David. Of course, in the world of Alien, there are likely millions of similar-looking android models running around through space, and David is one of many. As such, Fassbender will be portraying more than just David this time around, namely a more rigid robot named Walter, who assists the crew of the Covenant.

Speaking with our very own Fernando Esquivel, Michael Fassbender discussed the key differences between playing David and playing Walter in Alien: Covenant.

“It’s pretty straightforward in the fact that Walter is very much a synthetic minus any of the human traits. So when the David 8’s came out, there was a resistance from people to that model. Because it freaked them out a little bit. Because he was demonstrating a lot of human qualities, and his programming was veering towards human characteristics, like ego and vanity and pride. They found that to be not so much useful as opposed to making people uncomfortable, so they designed the following models with fewer of those human traits. Well, none of them really. So Walter is just a very straightforward, logical synthetic really. He’s more like a Leonard Nimoy/Mr. Spock type character. Whereas David is…it’s been ten years since we last saw him, without any maintenance. So those human qualities have sort of gathered momentum a little bit, I suppose. They’re as much a part of him now as his synthetic qualities. But Walter’s just really there to serve the ship, and its crew.”

Fassbender is certainly right in one regard. David got a little too curious for his own good, so it’s probably a good idea that future models were modified to act more rigidly. As such, it’s unlikely that Walter will go rogue in this one, but David, on the other hand, has had an opportunity to let his more human side marinate, for better or worse. We’ll have to wait and see how that all plays out.

What do you think of Fassbender’s comments? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Alien: Covenant hits theaters on May 19, 2017.

Click here to check out LRM Online’s full interview with Michael Fassbender and Billy Crudup for Alien: Covenant!

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