Alien: Covenant It featured Michael Fassbender as androids David and Walter One, and there’s a logical reason for their different accents. When Ridley Scott returned to the Alien Movie franchise with 2012s PrometheusHe did so in the belief that the original xenomorph was “Cooked“(by Indiewire). He felt that the monster was too overexposed in various sequels and pop culture that it could never be scary again. Instead, with Prometheus And BondScott wanted to replace the titular creature with another “alien” being.
So, Scott wanted Michael Fassbender’s rogue android dude to become the new villain. yet Alien: Covenant s Unsettling cliffhanger ending, a third prequel would have found David experimenting with the Engineer’s Black Goo and creating more xenomorph monstrosities. The mixed response to Bond Saw the road map torn up, with 2024s Alien: Romulus Instead focusing on new protagonists and returning to the saga’s survival horror roots. It’s a shame, because Fassbender’s dude was a fascinating villain, and his story deserves some payoff.
Walter has an American accent in Alien: Covenant
David’s “brother” is the next generation of Weyland Android
An interesting wrinkle Alien: Covenant Added to David’s story was the introduction of Walter One, another android with the handsome face of Michael Fassbender. The big difference between David and Walter is that the latter speaks with an American accent and is much less emotional Like his predecessor. Of course, Walter has the benefit of constant maintenance and human companionship, while David has spent a decade or so alone in the ruins of an alien world.
More than the different accents between Walter and David, the former is much more robotic and clinical. David is a free thinker who longs to be away from his human creators and has learned music and painting. Walter, on the other hand, does not understand and does not long for these pursuits. He’s programmed to be loyal to the Covenant crew and protect them, and it feels like the emotions he conveys — such as sympathy for Daniels (Katherine Waterston) after her husband’s death — are pre-programmed responses.
The practical reason for Walter and David’s different accents explained
The accents also come into play for Alien: Covenant’s big twist
It was a fun concept to have dueling Fassbender androids, and their relationship is the most engaging of the prequels – the controversial flute sequence notwithstanding. On a narrative level, It was necessary to give Walter and David different accents just so viewers could easily tell them apart. Fassbender could have used the same accent and conveyed the characters through body language or tone of voice, but the British and American accents keep things clear.
Alien: Covenant Also uses the old evil twin trope, revealing that David has either killed or deactivated Walter offscreen and has impersonated him for the entire third act. While some viewers saw this revelation coming miles away, David adopts his “brother’s” accent and body language to at least fool the surviving Covenant crew. If Fassbender had used the same voice for both Androids from the start, this switcharoo would have been difficult to pull off.
Walter’s accent shows how much has changed with Weyland’s Android
David is not Peter Weyland’s only son
Alien: Covenant Opens with David being “born,” and meeting his father Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). The opening sets up that David is the first of his kind, but also that he has been given unique emotional abilities by his creator.Including a love of music. David may be Weyland’s “son,” but when the android starts saying that he is—logically speaking—superior to his mortal father, Weyland puts him in his place by making him serve tea.
Walter possesses none of the things that make David more human or existential and he believes that he exists only to serve his masters.
All of the human elements that made David unique were stripped out of later models, and to the time Alien: Covenant s The main story kicks in, the Androids have been mass-produced. Walter possesses none of the things that make David more human or existential, and he believes that he exists only to serve his masters. Walter has no problem with his place in the world, so despite David trying to open his mind and show him that he can be so much more, the robot defines himself by his service.
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Weyland possibly spotted how dangerous more androids than David could be, which is why he made sure that later models took away his ability to think and create. Ridley Scott clearly thought it was a bad idea too, since both Blade Runner And Alien: Covenant Underlined the dangers of giving AI more sentence and free will. The 2017 prequel even suggests that it was David’s artistic abilities that led to the creation of the XenomorphAlthough this is a point that fans will passionately debate the director.
Source: Indiewire