Image: Audi/20th Century Fox

Alien: Covenant has a lot of far-flung futurist tech in it, which will inevitably be smeared in bits of the cast by the time the xenomorphs are done with them. But one piece in the movie is actually a bit of present-day technology: a small Rover provided by Audi that the manufacturer actually plans to send to the moon once its Hollywood career has taken off.


The Lunar Quattro, as it’s called, has been in development at the car manufacturer in collaboration with a German space start-up called Part-Time Scientists (yes, really) since 2015, with plans for it to eventually be used as part of a mission to the moon. Sadly, the Quattro’s first mission will be fictional before it has any hopes of jetting off into the stars, appearing as one of the rovers used by the crew of the Covenant in the upcoming Alien movie. And, because apparently everything related to Alien: Covenant must have its own short film prologue, on top of its film appearance the Quattro also stars in this:

It’s a neat way to integrate actual (eventual) space-faring technology into a sci-fi film, even if it’s a bit weird that the Covenant’s crew are ostensibly using a 2017 rover in the early 22nd century. But hey, this promotional tie-in with a car manufacturer makes a little more sense than some other attempts recently.


[Audi]