It has been almost a decade since Alien: Covenant left audiences with one of the franchise’s most unsettling cliffhangers, as Michael Fassbender’s David departed for Origae-6 with thousands of colonists — and a couple of Xenomorph embryos — entirely at his mercy. It was a total gut punch of an ending that thoroughly deserved a follow-up but, while Alien: Romulus and Alien: Earth have taken the franchise in a new direction, we don’t know what the hell happened to David. The good news, however, is that Ridley Scott hasn’t forgotten about his murderous synthetic creation and he’s now preparing to put him back at the center of the franchise.
Scott has confirmed that a follow-up to Alien: Covenant is in the works, with the new project set to focus on David — flute fingering and all — and continue the storyline established by Prometheus and Covenant. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Scott revealed that the story will pick up with David creating a “brave new world for himself.” The filmmaker remains particularly fascinated by the idea of artificial intelligence going dangerously wrong, explaining: “AIs can go off. And if they do, it’s like a bomb.”
Where Did ‘Alien: Covenant’ Leave Michael Fassbender’s David?
Covenant ended with the horrifying revelation that David had secretly replaced fellow synthetic Walter, also played by Fassbender, aboard the colony ship Covenant. After placing Daniels (Katherine Waterston) into hypersleep, David revealed that he had smuggled Facehugger embryos aboard before assuming control of the vessel and its approximately 2,000 sleeping colonists.
David’s return has apparently been a major consideration behind the scenes of the franchise as well. Fede Álvarez, who directed the successful Alien: Romulus, had been developing another Alien movie before departing the project. According to the report, Álvarez had wanted to incorporate David into his story, but Scott resisted because he wanted to preserve the possibility of continuing the character’s storyline himself. And now this update is a bit of a backtrack for Scott, because he’d previously suggested that his own time steering Alien might be over, telling ScreenRant:
“Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”
via Collider