The co-directors of Predator: Killer of Killers are stirring the Yautja pot, and the fans are ready for what they are looking to deliver. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the movie yet.
Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) and Josh Wassung recently sat down with Screen Rant and dropped some interesting hints about where the Predator franchise might be headed next, including a surprise connection to Prey and a subtle nod to the Alien vs. Predator legacy.
If you caught the animated anthology film, you know it’s not just another hunter-hunted story. Killer of Killers takes us through three distinct time periods that include the Viking Age, feudal Japan, and WWII, each centered around a warrior facing off against a relentless Yautja.
But then it flips the script: These warriors have actually been plucked from their time and cryogenically frozen, only to be revived in the far future to fight in an arena for the twisted entertainment of the Grendel King, a Predator overlord with a flair for theatrical brutality and carnage.
The biggest surprise? Prey protagonist Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, is shown in one of those stasis pods. It’s a moment that reframes the 2022 film’s hopeful ending into something far darker. Trachtenberg made one thing clear:
“I mean, I’ll clearly say it is not time travel. They are not time-travelling. That is the benefit of the cryo pod—they are plucked from their time period and then put into stasis and then unleashed when decided upon for that evening’s delightful entertainment.”
So what does that mean for Naru and others? The door is wide open. She could return in a future story, perhaps forced to fight alongside or against other characters from throughout the Predator mythos.
But the Alien question looms large, especially with fans pointing out that the Grendel King’s cape appears to be stitched together from Xenomorph tails. When asked if this was a nod to a future Alien vs. Predator project, Wassung responded:
“I would say the fans should interpret that the way they want to interpret it. I mean, we wanted to design that Predator with a regal elegance mixed with brutality. And that’s what spoke to us about that. And we honestly were having fun imagining where they might’ve come from.”
He added:
“But we really wanted to leave it to the fans to imagine where each of those skeletons and pieces of various creatures that he clearly has conquered and where they might’ve come from.”
Predator: Badlands is on the horizon, with Elle Fanning set to play a Weyland-Yutani android, which is a massive connective tissue between the Alien and Predator worlds. There’s clearly something brewing behind the scenes at 20th Century Studios and Disney.
While we wait to see what that is, one thing’s for sure: Predator: Killer of Killers just opened up a whole new arena of possibilities.
The film is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
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