The Alien franchise is inconsistent when it comes to its android characters and this sets up a potentially devastating twist for the upcoming Alien: Romulus. Throughout the entire Alien series, very few elements of the franchise’s lore have remained consistent. Alien Vs Predator introduced viewers to one version of Weyland Yutani’s founder and CEO, while Prometheus offered a completely contradictory new founder for the company only eight years later. Alien and Aliens depicted the titular Xenomorphs as perfectly evolved killing machines, whereas Alien: Covenant revealed they were a bioweapon recently developed by the duplicitous android David.

On the topic of that villainous android, the series has been notably inconsistent in the relative heroism or villainy of its robot characters. The upcoming reboot Alien: Romulus is set to take place between Alien and Aliens, arriving after a movie with a villainous android but before a sequel with a heroic android. The trustworthiness of the Alien franchise’s android characters seems like a crapshoot until viewers unearth the secret pattern that the series uses when it comes to robotic supporting stars. Unfortunately, this trend is bad news for the heroine of Alien: Romulus.

Alien History Suggests Romulus’ Android Will Be A Villain

Alien: Romulus Is Due A Villainous Android Character

In Alien, Ian Holms’ Ash was the franchise’s first evil android. However, in 1986’s first sequel, Aliens, Lance Henriksen’s Bishop was the first heroic android in the series. Since then, Prometheus introduced viewers to the amoral, villainous David, while its sequel Alien: Covenant replaced him with the more trustworthy Walter. Although David did trick the heroes of Alien: Covenant, Walter was an authentically heroic presence in the sequel. Since Alien’s first chestbuster exploded onto screens, the franchise’s androids have always been a mixed bunch who can be as dangerous as Xenomorphs or perfectly friendly, depending on the movie.

If this pattern continues, Alien: Romulus’ android character Andy will be an untrustworthy addition to the franchise’s growing list of robots. The problem is, Alien: Romulus’s android character, David Jonsson’s Andy, has a closer relationship to the heroine than most of the androids in the series. According to director Fede Alvarez’s Empire interview, Alien: Romulus’ heroine Rain inherited Andy from her dying father. Andy was intended to be a surrogate parent, but his status as an outdated model means he plays more of a younger brother role in Alien: Romulus. Thus, his betraying Rain would be tragic due to their shared family connection.

Alien: Romulus Repeating The Franchise’s “Bad Android” Twist Will Be The Most Tragic Betrayal Yet

Alien: Romulus’s Android Is Closely Related To The Movie’s Heroine

Since Alien: Romulus risks reviving Prometheus’s worst criticism with its cast of young inexperienced space travelers, the reboot may be better off breaking the franchise’s android character pattern. Andy betraying Rain wouldn’t just be a dark twist like Ash’s secret villainy in Alien, but would instead be bleak evidence that human characters in the series should never trust their robotic companions. Alien: Covenant’s twist ending already gave viewers another version of this grim punchline when the surviving heroes realized moments too late that they had entrusted their fate to the evil David, not the virtuous, identical Walter.

Although Alien: Romulus’s director, Fede Alvarez, is famous for writing pitiless horror movies that take no prisoners, this twist would still be too repetitive and hopeless to work. Ridley Scott’s other sci-fi franchise, the Blade Runner series, offers filmmakers more room to explore the morally ambiguous nature of artificial intelligence. At their core, the Alien movies are about the titular threat, not the androids who help and hinder the humans trying to escape the Xenomorph’s clutches. Thus, Alien: Romulus making the first android with a sympathetic backstory into an uncaring villain wouldn’t be a satisfying surprise, but instead predictable.

Why Alien: Romulus Should Break The Franchise’s Android Pattern

A Heroic Android Would Be More Surprising In Alien: Romulus

Since Walter was a heroic character in Alien: Covenant, it seems on paper like the franchise is overdue for a villainous robot. However, this reading dismisses the fact that both of Scott’s prequels were dominated by David’s role as a villainous android. As such, repeating Scott’s prequel trick in Alien: Romulus would be more repetitive than surprising and viewers would likely see Andy’s villainy coming from a mile away. In contrast, Andy being a genuinely kind character could be an unexpected twist for the long-awaited reboot.

It’s not like Andy needs to be a villain for Alien: Romulus to retain its mean streak. Alvarez loves subverting and avoiding horror franchise reboot mistakes, so Andy might be destroyed early on, or he could malfunction moments before his big heroic moment. These twists would allow Alvarez to maintain his reputation for dark humor and brutally cruel twists without repeating a revelation from the relatively recent Alien: Covenant. In contrast, if Alien: Romulus does offer the Alien franchise another villainous android character, this runs the risk of feeling a little redundant.