New Predator Movie Coming From Prey Director, And There's More In The Works
"Predator" fans rejoice! After director Dan Trachtenberg revived the long-running franchise with "Prey", an exciting standalone sequel that brought colonial America and Comanche characters front and center of story, 20th Century Studios seems to be taking notice and learning lessons from "Prey's critical success. 20th Century has just announced to The Hollywood Reporter that Trachtenberg would return as director for its next installment "Badlands", much to our delight! And all rejoice at such news!
"Prey" opened up endless opportunities for franchise expansion after returning the property to its roots with an intimate yet exciting take on alien warriors with a thirst for hunting. Beguilingly, this new film has not been confirmed as being directly a sequel to "Prey," contrary to expectations after an exciting end-credits sequence in "Prey" hinted at more Predators ships through cave drawings depicted as future arrivals. Trachtenberg will once more join with writer Patrick Aison to write the script, following suit with "Prey." Instead, its storyline will move in an opposite direction by setting itself "sometime in the future," taking cues from Amber Midthunder's impressive acting turn in order to cast another female lead character as seen in "Prey."
THR also reports that more "Predator" movies may still be forthcoming as studio is planning "a variety of 'Predator' projects" with Trachtenberg as creative lead.
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It seems everyone who saw "Prey" understood just how significant its inclusion to the franchise would be -- except perhaps those employed at its production studio itself. 20th Century Fox made headlines for depriving audiences of an adrenaline-pumping cinematic experience when they released Hulu streaming release for this period-piece thriller, effectively depriving them of an intense cinematic experience on big screens. No one knows for certain exactly how well an audience-pleasing film made along the lines of Dan Trachtenberg's brilliant "10 Cloverfield Lane," would've done at the box office; nonetheless, we can assume it would've been an immense hit. With news that Trachtenberg impressed her higher-ups enough to return, we hope they learn from past errors and give this new iteration of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo its due wide release - although THR does not mention whether such plans exist or not.
Still, this news should bring great delight to fans of "Predator," many of whom had thought the series had come to a halt with Shane Black's studio-meddled 2018 sequel "The Predator." Thanks to "Prey", however, which revived it by showing that there is plenty of untapped potential within its stories set at various time periods and settings - with today's news possibly suggesting an "Predator" cinematic universe! But we prefer being optimistic. Trachtenberg will now get his chance to execute upon those sequel ideas that had once been discussed!
Stay tuned to /Film for further updates!