Do you remember the Expanded Universe? I’m old enough to remember there were two types of Star Wars fans back in the day: Those who only championed the Original Trilogy and those with way too much time on their hands to invest into the galaxy far, far away, favoring the Expanded Universe (which included a variety of novels, comics, toys and games).
Eventually, the maker, himself, George Lucas, declared the EU irrelevant and non-canon, picking and choosing specific characters and events in name only, while drastically altering their histories. To this day, I’ll continue to declare my allegiance to those first three movies, which feels even more relevant after the great Disney purge of 20th Century Fox Studios many years later.
Quite a few intellectual properties have received new attention after that buyout, but that doesn’t mean every franchise in the film vault needs a dramatic reboot… but it’s safe to say that the Predator films deserve an upgrade.
Originally released in 1987, Predator was a sci-fi action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by John McTiernan. The core theme, action hero and accomplished filmmaker helped create a movie that’s still the best of the bunch, 38 years later! Part 2 was pretty good, but it didn’t live up the expectations of the original. I was never a fan of the crossover films (Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) and absolutely refuse to watch them to this day. For the most part, all of the film’s sequels underperformed at the box office, despite different approaches to tackle the storyline of an alien race that never speaks English.
Dan Trachtenberg took a different approach with Prey (2022). Set in the 1700s, the film created the best final girl of the franchise with Naru (Amber Midthunder), in a streaming movie that was another first for the franchise. Considered a successful endeavor, Trachtenberg returns for another film with Killer of Killers, which Jason describes as a story that’s stripped down to a man vs. monster scenario and elevated through strong character work and striking settings. And I totally agree.
Killer of Killers feels like an ’80s throwback film, as revenge knows no bounds from time or space in two of its three segments. In this time-traveling adventure, there’s so much action, it practically feels like a shade of the Mortal Kombat video games.
As a horror anthology film, Killer also breaks ground for the franchise in embracing that theme, but also for being the first animated movie of the ongoing series. And that’s exactly how to drag the Predator franchise kicking and screaming into the modern age.
Predator: Killer of Killers brings a new challenge to humanity. Photo Courtesy: 20th Century Studios.
Taking a cue from the Spider-Verse films, Killer of Killer embraces an animated spin-off of a live-action release. And it works. But the one element the Verse films have that Killer doesn’t is crossover characters. There may be ongoing storylines of being the best hunter in the ‘verse, but there really haven’t been any familiar characters popping up in the films outside of the alien race (but that may soon change). Maybe that’s one element that will be corrected with the upcoming Predator: Badlands, which will bring back Trachtenberg for a third time to tackle the Predator problem.
In order to prevent spoilers, I prefer to not read up on articles that discuss films during the pre-production stage — or ever watch trailers, for that matter — so I don’t know where the next film will head, but I’d be totally fine if franchise continues to expand via alternating lower-budgeted live-action films and animated fare — all streaming, and eventually leading up to present day.
Could Badlands bring the Predator to the Wild, Wild West? As a fan of that genre, I’d absolutely love to see that! What I’d prefer not to see is anything from the Dark Horse Comics storytelling process, where the distributor released a non-canon line of crossover stories, including Batman, Tarzan and Superman — I’m guessing that’s also the origin of the Alien franchise’s introduction. That I don’t want to see.
But one idea that would make me smile would be seeing a selective sequel a la the recent Blumhouse Halloween trilogy, where the overall storyline picks up on the current day, following an aged Arnie, who will hand off the franchise to the next action hero for future films.
As an original fan of 10 Cloverfield Lane, I’m getting very excited for the upcoming hunting season of the Predator franchise! I just hope it doesn’t take the turn of the Star Wars Expanded Universe!