Does This 'Prometheus' Easter Egg Hint at a 'Blade Runner' Tie-In?

"Dictated but not read." Well, what do we have here, Mr. Weyland? That ominous October 11th, 2012 date seen in the viral and end of the credits for Prometheus is fast approaching. But as many assumed, it's right around the DVD/Blu-Ray release date for Prometheus. However, with this release comes a lot of new reveals and surprises (like an Engineer reading books?). There's Easter Eggs, extended/deleted scenes that fill in a lot of the big gaps, and much more yet to be found. One intriguing discovery made recently is this - an odd, but nonetheless real, reference to Blade Runner (which Ridley Scott is making a sequel of) in some text.

The discovery was first made by Reddit user Huxleyism (via ScreenCrush) who wrote a rather hyperbolic but appropriate title: "HOLY SHIT. Prometheus and Blade Runner tie in, directly written on the bonus features of the steelbook bluray." Beyond that he doesn't say how exactly he found it, but it's from the Steelbook UK Prometheus release. The text, written by Peter Weyland (played by Guy Pearce), explains vaguely some connection to one Dr. Eldon Tyrell, which is the obvious part once you actually read it. Things like the pyramid, "simple robotics instead of those genetic abominations", his "corporation" (Tyrell Corp) and so on.

Here's the piece of text that he took a photo of, apparently hidden in the Prometheus Steelbook somewhere:

Despite this being at most a reference and perhaps not too much else, other bloggers have gone the extra mile and tried to connect the dots to the in-the-works Ridley Scott Blade Runner sequel. We've known since early 2011 that Alcon Entertainment was developing a new Blade Runner movie, and they somehow got Ridley Scott to agree to do it. Last year, Ridley himself teased that it's "liable to be a sequel", but beyond that, details are rather vague on what it'll be/when it'll be set. We're all waiting to hear for something more about and, well, since this is a hint, time to jump on it and turn the connection into a buzz-worthy rumor.

Now don't forget, at the end of the credits of Prometheus there was a tag that ended up linking to more viral content that seemed to hint that there was more to come. It first unlocked a hint at Comic-Con viral, which was there briefly. So you never know - Fox, Ridley, Damon Lindelof and the crafty minds behind this could be trying to turn all of Ridley's sci-fi movies into one big universe, because it is a good marketing hook anyway. However, that 10-11-12 website now just auto-links to Project Prometheus and the date has changed to 10-09-12 - the DVD release day. So the reference may not be a full connection, but it is pretty damn cool.

Huxleyism does remind us of another thing: "Must ask question: Has this been written about before? Blade Runner is set in 2019. Prometheus in 2090. Wayland is old." At least the timing checks out, and if Ridley is really making a Blade Runner sequel, the timeframe could work for a cool connection like this - maybe Guy Pearce will show up in the new Blade Runner? We'll have to see. Only time, of course, will tell. Hat tip: read this April 2012 editorial - "Will Prometheus Create a Shared Universe Between Alien and Blade Runner?"

Update: There's more! Thanks to reader @stephenstaunton there's apparently a "Supplementary Pod" on the Blu-Ray as well that really makes big hints at this cross-universe as well. So it may be real? Check out this screenshot below from one of the featurettes titled "Merging Ridleyverses" - not obvious enough yet? Here's part of a transcript he sent me: "There's one idea that I'm very sad that we didn't do. Ridley, one day, came in and said, "You know, I'm thinking what if it's the Weyland-Tyrell Corporation? Is that cool?" And we're like, "Dude, that's really cool. You gotta do it!". Here's a few screenshots he sent from the video:

The information comes from concept artist Ben Proctor, who is talking in the "Merging Ridleyverses" featurette. He continues with more on Ridley's ideas: "Maybe the bodyguards, you know, that come out with Weyland, maybe one of them says Batty on his uniform. And we're like "Awesome! Do it, do it!". And it didn't end up making it but I thought that was a really cool thing that there is such a compatibility between the sort of, you know, dystopian future of Blade Runner and Alien that they may as well be the same universe. And if we're doing a Weyland versus a Weyland-Yutani, why not have corporate mergers shifting and make some kind of a connection there. I thought that was cool." What do you make of all these details?

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