Dan Trachtenberg has been reshaping the Predator franchise in ways few expected just a few years ago. After delivering the most impressive Predator movie since the 1987 original with Prey, followed by the well-received animated series Predator: Killer of Killers, and soon releasing Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg has now taken an unexpected step by bringing back two of the franchise’s most famous characters.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Trachtenberg revealed a new cut of one of his projects that includes a scene shown during the panel. Brandon Davis posted on X that Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Trachtenberg to discuss his cameo and plans to continue working on new stories together. Even if Schwarzenegger does not return in live-action, there appear to be plans to expand the animated side of the franchise.
Trachtenberg had already hinted at this when he talked about the ending of Predator: Killer of Killers. That anthology expanded the franchise’s story by revealing that the Yautja, the alien Predators, keep their victorious warriors in suspended animation. Schwarzenegger’s character, Dutch, is clearly among those who survived. Trachtenberg shared a significant hint about Schwarzenegger’s return last month. He said, “So the movie was made under the code name Warehouse, as that end moment was in the original idea pitch to the studio, and it felt like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Certainly Arnold, like many others, was a survivor of his story, and one could easily imagine him up there in cryo, along with any other Earth champion of champions from other planets.”
It is clear Trachtenberg has big plans for the Predator series that go beyond what is publicly known. A follow-up to Killer of Killers is now almost certain. Speaking about his approach, the director said he treats every project as his only chance. “Certainly [each of my movies] are being made as if this was my only shot. Everything was thrown into it. Should we be able to do more… Certainly Killer of Killers seizes something, and Badlands [does too]. Hopefully there will be something more, but they don’t rely on the something more. Hopefully they are both cool within their own merits.”
What do you think about Trachtenberg’s direction for the Predator franchise?
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Jamison Ashley
Comic geek, movie nerd, father, and husband - but not necessarily in that order. Former captain of this ship o' fools secretly training everyone's computers and snarkphone spell-checkers to misspell 'supposebly.'
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