Meet Walter

Meet Walter
Cast & Crew
Directed by	Luke Scott
Written by	Will Melton Chris Eyerman
Starring	Michael Fassbender
Release Information
Release date(s)	March 10, 2017
Production companies	20th Century Fox RSA Films 3AM Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Running time	3 minutes
Country of Origin	United States of America
Chronology
Preceded by	The Last Supper
Followed by	Crew Messages

Meet Walter is a 2017 short film directed by Luke Scott and starring Michael Fassbender. Created as part of the viral marketing campaign for Alien: Covenant, the film serves as a fictional advertisement for the Walter line of synthetics.

Plot

In a spartan laboratory, two Weyland-Yutani technicians oversee the creation of a Walter, from a basic synthetic skeleton to a completed, skinned android. Upon activating the finished synthetic, he introduces himself as Walter, after which the Walter slogan appears on the screen: "The all-new Walter. Created to serve."

Cast

• Walter .... Michael Fassbender

Production

The film was made in collaboration with computer chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), whose technology is shown to power Walter. The short was conceived as an evolution of Happy Birthday, David, a similar promotional film created as part of the marketing campaign for Prometheus, and was designed to highlight the fundamental differences between Walter and his predecessor David.

Release

Prior to its release, Meet Walter was promoted via a 12-second teaser video that lifted much of the footage from the film. In the teaser, Walter can be heard saying: "Learn from me. If not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge." The quote is in fact a word-for-word lifting from the novel Frankenstein: The Postmodern Prometheus, wherein the titular character is warning an unnamed listener about the danger that too much knowledge can bring to man.

The film premiered at the South by Southwest festival on March 10, 2017, during a special screening of the original Alien, before being released through YouTube immediately afterwards, as part of the viral marketing campaign for Alien: Covenant.

Home video release

Following its initial online release, the short film was included as a bonus feature on the Alien: Covenant Blu-ray.

Trivia

• A similar faux-advertisement for a new synthetic model, Happy Birthday, David, was produced as part of Prometheus's viral marketing campaign, in that case promoting the David 8 synthetic line.
• The tag line labelling Walter "all-new" is somewhat ironic, given that it is externally identical to the earlier David 8 line.

Gallery

Concept art of an unassembled Walter.