Michael Fassbender Offers Details on His New Robot Role in ‘Alien: Covenant’

An interesting rumor surfaced over the summer, suggesting that Michael Fassbender is playing not one, but two droid roles in Alien: Covenant — the dangerously mischievous synthetic David from Prometheus, and a new and somewhat improved iteration known as Walter. Those dual roles have already been confirmed, and now the actor himself has offered a few details about his intriguing new robot character.

While speaking with ComingSoon to promote the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed, Fassbender was asked about Walter, the new droid he plays in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming Alien prequel. Here’s his description of what makes Walter different from his sinister predecessor, David:

I think Walter’s a real different kettle of fish. 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.

“A real different kettle of fish” is a perfectly charming description for a droid that may very well be a bit more charming — or at least more helpful — than the previous iteration. We last saw David at the end of Prometheus, as he took off in the Engineer ship with Noomi Rapace’s Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. In Alien: Covenant, David has found a new planet where he can continue his, um, biological meddling. Here’s the official synopsis:

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

The latest Alien prequel also stars Katherine Waterston as the captain of a colony ship, along with Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Billy Crudup, Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo and Callie Hernandez. Rapace will reprise her role as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, though the extent of her involvement is unknown — presumably, she won’t be around for long. And late last week, we also learned that James Franco has a small but significant role as the husband of Waterston’s character.

Alien: Covenant hits theaters on May 19, 2017.