Introduction
There is a particular canonical issue often being debated within the fanbase regarding whether or not Charles Bishop Weyland from Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Sir Peter Weyland from Prometheus (2012) are actually biologically related and even representing the relationship of father and son (or uncle and nephew as some would argue), and in the following blog entry I would like to address this very issue and see if there is a reasonable case to be made for this argument. There is also a separate but related debate as to whether or not the two characters even exist within the same continuity and I will partially address that here as well, but for the full picture I recommend this article; Does Alien and Predator Take Place in a Shared Universe?
Evidence #1: Consistent Timeline
If these two characters had not been related or had actually existed within separate continuities then you could expect to see contradictions in the timelines of each character, but there are no genuine contradictions to be found.
Judging by the age of the actor behind the character, Lance Henriksen, Charles was likely born around the 1950's while Peter is stated by the official Weyland Industries Corporate Timeline (a promotional website for Prometheus) as having been born on October 1st, 1990, and so this is obviously consistent with what you would expect if the former is the parent and the latter is the child, so there is certainly no genuine contradiction to be found here.
Some also like to point out the fact that Peter founded Weyland Corporation/Weyland Industries in 2012 whereas Charles founded the very same company sometime between 1950 and 2004, and they then argue that this must surely be a considerable contradiction, and on the surface it certainly seems to be until you are reminded that there was an eight year gap between Charles death in 2004 and Peter rising to power in 2012, and that's a considerable amount of time during which literally anything could have happened that could have lead to the company either disintegrating, becoming dormant, or receiving new leadership with the intention to rejuvenate the company and downplay its previous history for whatever reasons.
Regardless, the point is that this is not a genuine contradiction as much as it is a strange curiosity, and had the intent been to actually present a contradictory account of the foundation of the company then its foundation should logically have occurred sometime while Charles was still alive and still operating as founder and CEO of the same company, and the foundation of the company should not have been placed at a date when it's fully possible to be interpreted as a second iteration of the very same company and existing in succession to it.
Evidence #2: Mystery Parents
The Weyland Industries Corporate Timeline states that Peter was born to an Oxford-educated Professor of Comparative Mythology and a self-taught engineer, and considering these two characters are strangely never properly identified and one of the parents is described as a self-taught engineer, just like Charles, it seems even more plausible that a relationship between Charles and Peter could exist but hasn't been properly acknowledged as of yet. If the intention wasn't to connect Charles and Peter to each other or at least allow for that interpretation to be made then they would never have left the identities of Peter's parents a mystery nor describe them as being compatible with Charles.
Evidence #3: Lung Cancer
It is interesting to note that Charles suffered from lung cancer during his expedition to Antarctica on October 10, 2004, while Peter secured a method patent for a synthetic trachea on October 1st, 2004, an invention which is precisely designed to be able to cure lung cancer of all things, and one may wonder why Peter Weyland was so keen on curing lung cancer during the same time when Charles Weyland was suffering from the very same illness.
Evidence #4: Identical Offices
Evidence #5: Artificial Intelligence
In Alien vs. Predator, a Scientific American magazine labels Charles Weyland as "the pioneer in modern robotics", and considering Peter Weyland's great interest in the same field, this further adds to the plausibility of Peter having inherited similar interests from Charles as his mentor. Adding that Paul W.S. Anderson, director of Alien vs. Predator, confirmed that the Bishop model of androids from Aliens was designed (by Michael Bishop Weyland from Alien 3) in the likeness of Charles Bishop Weyland.
On this topic, Paul Anderson stated in an interview with IGN; "the role was written for him. I wanted some casting continuity with the Alien franchise even though it is set 100 years after our movie. The only person that could be was Lance. He, of course, was an android in the other movies. That was the idea behind that. I thought it was kind of a neat idea … I wanted to use the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in some respect. So the idea is that Charles Bishop Weyland is like Bill Gates, but his area of expertise is robotics. He's made his money in high tech and he's like the father of modern robotics. So that when the Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates. The idea with Weyland is that his character is a man who is dying and like a lot of rich men who are facing the end, they realize that money and power aren't enough. What they want to do is leave something behind. So it's kind of like his longing for immortality that precipitates a lot of the events in this film, but also explains why his corporation would build something with his face."
On this topic, Paul Anderson stated in an interview with IGN; "the role was written for him. I wanted some casting continuity with the Alien franchise even though it is set 100 years after our movie. The only person that could be was Lance. He, of course, was an android in the other movies. That was the idea behind that. I thought it was kind of a neat idea … I wanted to use the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in some respect. So the idea is that Charles Bishop Weyland is like Bill Gates, but his area of expertise is robotics. He's made his money in high tech and he's like the father of modern robotics. So that when the Bishop android is created in 150 years time, it's created with the face of the creator. It's kind of like Microsoft building an android in 100 years time that has the face of Bill Gates. The idea with Weyland is that his character is a man who is dying and like a lot of rich men who are facing the end, they realize that money and power aren't enough. What they want to do is leave something behind. So it's kind of like his longing for immortality that precipitates a lot of the events in this film, but also explains why his corporation would build something with his face."
Evidence #6: Father Issues
In both Prometheus and its sequel Covenant, Peter clearly seems to exhibit issues relating to fatherhood and authority and subsequently passed on these same concerns unto his David 8 android, and the films never account for the reason behind this. However, the film and novelization of Alien vs. Predator may provide the reason in that Charles being characterized as very self-absorbed and almost addicted to expanding and elevating his own fame and the fame of his company to new heights, even to the detriment of his own health, and this could very likely have had a very negative impact on young Peter, especially if he sought to connect with a father figure who viewed himself in an almost divine and almighty manner.
Adding that the novelization also mentions Charles as having grown up without a mother and with a succession of nannies and a cold agnostic father, lacking belief in the divine and instead idolized his own human achievements (much like Peter), and Charles (like Peter, arguably) took over his father's company and rejuvenated it into Weyland Corporation/Weyland Industries. Such a negative experience of his father might quite likely have even led Peter to ignore his father's achievements and history with the company and virtually erase him from memory while taking on the same idolized role as his father, which eventually carried over to the David 8 android and his desire to see his father dead and become a "god" of his own. It is ironic even that both Charles and Peter would die during a sickly and elderly state at the hands of the very alien "gods" they sought to come into contact with for the sake of carrying on their great legacy and find some ultimate purpose and meaning to their existence and all their great endeavours and finally achieve immortality.
Evidence #7: Acknowledgement During Production
During the production of Prometheus and the establishing of the story centered around Peter Weyland, writer Damon Lindelof mentioned the character of Charles Weyland from Alien vs. Predator, to which director Ridley Scott responded with a sense of annoyance, and Lindelof later stated in an interview that this was "the beginning and end of all Alien vs. Predator references in Prometheus" (which is interesting to note seeing as 20th Century Fox later decided to actually connect Prometheus not only to Aliens but also to Predator and Alien vs. Predator through media such as the Fire and Stone and Life and Death crossover comics between 2014 and 2017, serving as a direct official tie-in to the 2012 film and referencing other Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator films, further establishing the shared continuity between these franchises).
However, even though this demonstrates Scott's negative or careless attitude towards Alien vs. Predator (even though he has never actually seen the films), this also proves that there was some sense of respect and awareness present of Alien vs. Predator and Charles Weyland during the production of this film and the creation of Peter Weyland due to how somebody thought it worthwile to bring up, and this could further indicate a deliberate attempt for there to be ambiguous connections between Charles and Peter present in the promotional material being produced, as they seem to allow for a connection between the characters to be made while at the same time avoiding to acknowledge it, and obviously whatever they established as the background for the character of Peter Weyland they obviously did that with intention, and so to argue that Scott's negative opinions on Alien vs. Predator has any weight in regards to the production of Prometheus and canonical issues would really signify shooting yourself in the foot.
Adding to this, some people also like to argue that Scott actually decides what is canon within the Alien franchise, but this is obviously not true because it's not his property but it belongs to 20th Century Fox and Scott also acknowledged during a San Diego Comic Con panel (although by still implying his own negative opinion on Alien vs. Predator) that he ultimately answers to Fox in regards to what he does with their property, and Fox once more seem very much keen on retaining connections between the Alien vs. Predator and Prometheus brands to this very day and probably won't ever allow him to deal with the franchise as he would see fit.
Conclusion
Now, I'm not arguing that this is actually the case, but given the evidence provided, there seems to be no real reason why we shouldn't conclude this, and to all intents and purposes they do seem to be related, and fans can't be blamed for intuitively interpreting the two characters this way. They even appear to share physical characteristics. I'm also definitely not the first to point all this out, as various video presentations from the fanbase would demonstrate.
But if you were to ask me, I would say that, objectively speaking, it's extremely easy to connect the two characters and it would only make logical sense to accept them as family, and ultimately I think that decision would be for the best in order to cultivate peace and unity in the fanbase as well. It sure is much better than to cultivate conflict. Bottom line, there is a rather strong case to be made for the common argument that Charles Bishop Weyland and Peter [Bishop] Weyland are actually blood relatives in terms of father and son. Now all we need is just an official confirmation of this interpretation in some future product.
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