ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - PREDATOR: The Complete History of the Entire Franchise

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Welcome back Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Airy, and this is the ultimate history of the entire Predator franchise. So the series began with the really simple idea. What if an alien hunted Arnold Schwarzenegger in the jungle? And then it evolved from there into a decade-spanning cinematic universe that's part action, part horror, part dudes just hanging out together. So we're going to dive deep into the mythology of the predator species and also the real life behind-the-scenes stories of how they came to be, because that's just as interesting. So let's get started and go all the way back to 1985. One of the biggest franchises in Hollywood at the time was Rocky, and after Rocky 4, Sylvester Stallone's title boxer had already beaten Apollo Creed, Mr. T, and even communism.

So a joke started going around town that the only opponent left for Rocky to fight was an alien. Rocky, please don't go to Mars and fight the Martian. I gotta do what I gotta do. Two screenwriters, brothers Jim and John Thomas, took that to heart and started a screenplay called Hunter. The idea was that a team of alien hunters would go after various dangerous species. Now, eventually, that was streamlined into a single alien hunter going after the most dangerous game of all, Permas. No, not Pumas.

Man, man, is the most dangerous game. And the Thomas Brothers set the story in Central America, which was constantly in the news of the time because of its violent conflicts. Eventually, Joel Silver was brought on to produce. Now, Silver was known for his big action movies like Lethal Weapon and Commando. Silver showed the script to the star of Commando, Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Arnold didn't like that the film was basically just him versus a single alien, and that was it. The script was changed so that instead Arnold was part of a team of elite commandos. So between Joel Silver, Arnold, and these new characters, the sci-fi horror became a hybrid. For the first half of the film, it's basically just a straight-up action war film.

This actually worked in the story's favor because it reflects a major theme in the Predator series, that humans are basically violent monsters, no different than the Predators. Do you think there's too much graphic violence in Predator, you know, arms blowing on? That's funny. that, but it lured audiences into thinking that they were watching another macho 80 shoot him up before things go completely off the rails. It's similar to what Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino did a decade later with From Dust Till Dawn, which starts off as a typical Tarantino crime film before suddenly becoming a gory vampire movie. Now, Predator is one of the greatest action movies

of all time, and to celebrate it, we have designed this awesome new parody merch at our merch store. So to honor the manliest handshake in cinema history, we have the Dylan and Dutch. There's also my personal favorite, The Predator uses his laser to play with cats. And we also have tributes to the greatest lines from the movie, like Getto Dechapa, and I ain't got time to bleed. And in honor of Badlands, we also have Deck the Predator, a spoof ador the Explorer. And on the other side of the franchise, we have a Xenoborf Tamagotchi, and classics like Zeno's cereal and the chestburster with a hat and cane, just like in

Spaceballs. Links for all of these are below, and now you can become a store member to earn rewards and get free stuff. Links for everything are below, thanks for your support. Now, for the other commandos, the producers wanted to to surround Arnold with other larger-than-life macho guys, and they delivered. The cast includes Carl Weathers, who previously played Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, and would later play key roles in The Mandalorian and arrested development. This is just purely a social call.

You're not just two adults getting a stool on, man. Carl Weathers was cast as an old close friend of Dutch, who's played by Arnold, and thus a popular meme that wouldn't develop for decades was born without anybody knowing it. Dylan! You son of a bitch! The film's cast also includes pro wrestler and former Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chavez, and Bill Duke, who co-starred alongside Schwarzenegger and Commando. Finally, there was Shane Black, who wasn't very muscular, but was close to Joel Silver after making millions with lethal weapon, a script that he wrote when he was just 23 years old.

Black was also a working actor at the time, although he would eventually become the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood. Eventually, he started directing, making films like Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys, and you guessed it, a Predator sequel. Allegedly, Joel Silver also put Shane Black in the cast to keep an eye on director John McTierness. Now, McTiernan had never made a big budget blockbuster before, so Silver wanted to make sure that the director could deliver. He had nothing to worry about, though. I mean, McTiernan would later direct the hunt for Red October and the first Die Hard. So clearly, he knew what he was doing.

And speaking of, if you're into exhaustive history of beloved movie franchises, check out our deep dive into the definitive history of the diehard series. Technically, it's a Christmas movie. That's right. So gather your extended family around the campfire and play it from your phone this Christmas Eve. How lovely. Now, back to Predator, though, or should I say Hunter, because that's what it was still called. Also, the design of the predator was very different at first. Originally, the idea was to have a giant mantis-like alien with an insect head.

The alien was envisioned as having fast reflexes and lots of agility, which would allow it to be the ultimate hunter, basically an alien ninja. And because of this, the producers hired one of the most agile actors in Hollywood, a young man named Jean-Claude Van Dam. Filming got underway with Jean-Claude hunting Arnold, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and the others in the middle of the jungle while dressed as a giant bug. And for the invisible effect, the suit was bright orange to contrast against the green jungle. There were a few problems with this, though. For one thing, Van Dam couldn't do any of the cool jumping and roundhouse kicking he was hired for because the suit was too restrictive. It was also really damn hot in the suit, and Van Dam complained that he could pass out at any second.

He was very unhappy. Everybody hurt. And finally, Van Dam didn't quite look right in the movie. He was wearing a giant baghead. No, besides that. You see, Jean-Claude Van Dam is tough, and you'd never want to get in the fight with. with the guy, but because he's 5'9, he looks a lot smaller than the guys he was hunting, even Arnold and Ventura. Even though the movie was well into shooting, the filmmakers realized

that they needed to start from scratch. And that's when the predator design we all know and love came to be, designed by the legendary Stan Winston. Winston is the special effects genius behind movies like Jurassic Park and The Thing, and he designed the iconic Terminator skeleton. Winston's predator design was inspired by a tribal warrior sketch that he made while flying with James Cameron, who supposedly suggested adding mandibles to the monster. Jean-Claude was out and the new Predator suit was worn by Kevin Peter Hall, who was seven-foot-two and had just played another iconic scary creature, Harry from Harry and Henderson's. In addition to top-notch makeup and costume work, Predator also has plenty of visual effects. The Yacha are rooted in tribal hunting, but they are equipped with advanced alien tech as well.

This includes a shoulder launcher which uses three red laser dots to aim and heat-seeking thermal vision to easily spot prey. Now this technology is new to me, but I'm pretty sure that's. Homer Simpson in the oven. He's literally stewing in his own juices. And of course, there's also the Predator's armored suit, which can be almost completely invisible. This also saved the studio some money, since many shots don't have the Predator near visible, and instead they use no special effects whatsoever. It's just a shot of a tree or something. The Alien also has neon green blood, a very cool touch that the filmmakers accomplished by using whatever ungodly chemicals they use in Glowsticks.

Now, these effects even earned Predator an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. The Predator makes a creepy clicking sound throughout the film, which was done by voice actor Peter Collin, who you probably know best as the voice of Optimus Prime. We are here. We are waiting. Other creepy sound designs include the Predator repeating and learning words and phrases it observes from its prey.

What the hell are you? And finally, Alan Silvestri, the composer of Back to the Future of the Avengers and many other films, was brought on to do the music for Predator. The film established a formula that several others in the series have used. The Predator stalks a group of people, often soldiers or law enforcement or other kinds of hunters in their own right, but one by one, it takes them out until it has an extended battle with the last man, or woman who's standing.

Eventually, Arnold defeats the monster by combining his brawn with his brains, using mud to hide himself from the Predator's thermal vision. Defeated, the Predator uses a self-destruct sequence on his wrist to blow himself up, like a form of alien Sepaku. He even sends Arnold off with a creepy laugh. Now, this also presumably keeps the advanced alien tech from falling into the hands of primitive species like humans, who obviously can't be trusted with sophisticated technology. Check out my beautiful art.

This may surprise you, but I made this with the small assistance of Aon. Yeah, I can tell. For some insane reason, the movie ends by showing the cast, one by one, turning toward the camera and smiling. It looks like every 80s sitcom opening credits. And it's incredibly jarring to follow up a dark action horror that way, especially because it still keeps the haunting musical score. However, director John McTierrin says that he kept it in because, in the end, Making Predator was just a bunch of dudes having fun.

In his defense, you can't argue that it isn't charming as hell, even if it is a weird tonal shift. It's also led to countless YouTubes and TikToks where people show that literally any 80 sitcom theme works over the images. Predator was released on June 12, 1987, and was number one at the boxoff. Now, while it had mixed reviews, it made nearly $100 million off a budget of less than $20 million, so 20th Century Fox immediately Greenlit a sequel. They brought back composer Alan Silvestri and the original screenwriters, Jim and John Thomas,

who pitched six different story ideas for Predator 2. Now, the one the studio went with was the idea of moving the predator from a real jungle to an urban jungle, an exaggerated dystopian version of modern Los Angeles. The film actually takes place in the far-off future year of 1997, set a decade after the first film. crime in Los Angeles has become out of control, especially in the middle of a brutal heat wave. Now, since the film was set in the near future, it made use of the new subway system that LA had only just built, which basically every 90s film set in the future did, because the idea of public transit in LA still seemed like a sci-fi fantasy. The sequel would also expand the

mythology of the yachtcha and show that the predator wasn't a psychopathic serial killer, but part of a cultural tradition of hunting. To direct, Joel Silver recruited Stephen Hopkins, who directed Nightmare on Elm Street 5. So the idea was to pair Arnold up, with more of an Everyman type who was part of the LAPD. However, Arnold dropped out of the film because he felt he wasn't being paid enough. And after all, at this time, he was basically the biggest star in Hollywood. So the story was then changed to focus solely on the Everyman cop named Harrigan. This might have been a blessing in disguise for the franchise, though. Rather than focus on Arnold's Dutch as the nemesis of the Predators, similar to how Sigourney-Weavers-Ripley

was always against the Xenomorfs and Alien, the Predator could be the star of its own franchise, taking on a range of different kinds of rivals with each iteration. Rather than a Another Predator versus the strongest, toughest soldier we have, Predator 2 showed what would happen if just a regular Joe had to face the creature. For the role, the director wanted Patrick Swayze. He also considered Stephen Seagull, but Seagull wanted to play the role as a black-op psychiatrist who knew martial arts. But that's not very every man at all. Exactly.

So Joel Silver eventually brought in Danny Glover, who he worked with on the Lethal Weapon franchise. He also brought in two other lethal weapon actors for the supporting cast, Stephen Cahan and Gary Busey, as well as Bill Paxton, Rubin Blades, Maria Conchita Alonon, and Adam Baldwin. Adam Baldwin, are the Baldwin brothers? Actually, no, Adam Baldwin is not one of the Baldwin brothers, but he is Jane from Firefly and Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket. Also, returning to the franchise was Kevin Peter Hall as the predator,

although to be clear, this is a different Yacha alien from the first one. That first alien blew himself up and was like dead, dead. There's dead. And there's dead. Now, because this was a different alien, Stan Winston made it look similar, but not exactly the same as the last one. This also established the way one yacha could look different,

from another, even more so than the xenomorphs and aliens, which has led to some very cool designs all the way up to 2025's Badlands. The Predator and Predator 2 was designed to look more hip to reflect the urban setting of the sequel. It's got brighter skin and more fangs. The main plot of the film deals with a turf war between two cartels, the LAPD dealing with the crimes, and the introduction of the predator who starts killing off the gang members. Now between the police investigation of the predator, scenes showing how it operates and later exposition from Gary Busey, we find out a lot more about the species than we did in the first film. For example, a piece of its weaponry recovered at a crime scene reveals it to be an unknown metal that does not appear on the periodic table of elements.

Now, at one point, we see a step-by-step process of how predator gives itself first aid in the field, using plaster from a bathroom wall and some kind of predator first aid kit to treat his wounds. Gary Busey's character, Peter Keyes, is revealed to be a government agent that is aware of the aliens. Interestingly, the name of his division is OWLF, which stands for Other World Life Forms, and hence that the government also knows about other alien species, to the Yacha. Other world life forms a fucking alien. Now there are actually deleted scenes where Keyes goes even deeper into the lure, including explicit references to Dutch, but the final film still keeps in some of the information. The novelization of Predator 2, which isn't really canon,

also says that Dutch was suffering from radiation sickness after defeating the Yacha. He then escaped from the hospital and is never seen again. Novelization also shows the story from the predator's point of view. Like at one point, the Predator is humiliated when Danny Glover takes off his mask. In the film, Busey tells Danny Glover that the government knows that they hunt for sport and mentions the events of the first film. Ten years ago, one of his kind, stalked and eliminated an elite special forces crew in Central America. Directly tying the sequel to the original.

We also briefly see footage of Anna Gonzalez, the only other survivor from the first film. She is played by Elpida Carrillo, who is also the mother of Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle. Now, it's unclear if the government already knew about the aliens before Dutch killed one, or if that was when they first became aware of them. Although the men in black division of the government does return in a later film. Gary Busey and his men set up a trap for the predator and used their knowledge against him.

To hide from its thermal vision, they use insulated suits and UV lights. Now, at first, this works, as the predator cannot find the soldiers in a cold meatpacking freezer. Suspecting a trap, just as it did in the first film, the predator then adjusted its vision. And this is how we learned that thermal vision

is just one of several frequencies its mask can be used for. Once the predator adjusts it, and can see the UV flashlights of the soldiers, he easily dispatches them. In addition to fleshing out the tech of the yacht ship, Predator 2 also gives us more insight into their code of ethics. At one point, the Predator spares Detective Leona Contrell after it realizes she is pregnant. Now, while Contrell is an armed officer, the fetus is not, hinting that either the predators don't like killing innocent children or just unarmed life forms in general. Unfortunately, Contrell's partner, Detective Lambert, played by Bill Paxton, is decidedly not pregnant, so the predator

takes him out. Now, this gives the late Great Bill. packed in the distinction of being the only actor ever be killed by a predator, an alien, a Terminator, and those time-traveling squid things from Edge of Tomorrow. Now for the climax, instead of a more direct head-to-head battle between the Predator and Arnold, we get a pretty great chase scene through apartment buildings, showing how even in every man like Danny Glover can be a match for a Yacha. The Predator takes its signature move of blowing itself up with its smart watch, but Glover slices off his hand before he has a chance. Glover then tracks down the predator to what we eventually realize is a giant's

spaceship hiding in an LA tunnel. He fights the wounded predator and actually kills it. Now, we should note here that this movie is pretty bloody and gory, both with red blood and the green neon blood. In fact, Predator 2 was the first ever film to receive an NC17 rating, a relatively new rating created by the MPAA to replace the X rating, which was public domain, and also made X-rated films like Midnight Cowboys sound like a porno. So because an NC17 rating when Limit who could see it in movie theaters, it was cut down and censored enough to receive an R rating. After he kills the predator, Danny Glover's Harrigan

is suddenly surrounded by several other Yacha, showing that the spaceship did not have a single occupant. Okay, who's next? Realizing there is nothing else he can do against so many predators at once, Glover does the one thing that he can do. Challenge them to a dance off. Just kidding. That was just a fun outtake.

No, instead, the Yacha spared Detective Harrigan's life. After all, he beat the predator one-on-one, fair and square. This shows even more insight into their culture in that they have some kind of honor system in addition to sparing pregnant women. The senior predator, literally, it looks like his dreads are gray, even gives Danny Glover a prize for winning. He tosses him an old flintlock pistol, which has a name,

Raphael Adolini, in a year 1715 inscribed. So this shows that the predators have been hunting humans and taking trophies for centuries. So this little touch with the gun was intended to expand world building and nothing else. The filmmakers had no idea that more than 30 years later, that gun would inspire another Predator film, this time a prequel showing the origin of that weapon. The filmmakers also added another Easter egg into Predator 2 that would not only unintentionally spawn a film, but an entire

franchise. Stan Winston worked on Predator 2, but he also designed the Xenomorphs and James Cameron's aliens, and both properties happen to be owned by Fox. So when Harrigan first enters and explores the Predator's spaceship, he sees a bunch of alien trophy skulls with some really far out in scary designs. There's like even some kind of alien dinosaur. So this shows that the Yacha don't just hunt humans, they hunt various alien species across the galaxy or the universe. These designs also help inform the later alien creatures that will see in other sequels too. But the most interesting skull is that of a xenomorph, which shouldn't even have a skull if you think about it. Again, this alien skull is there just for fun showing off another iconic Stan Winston

design. However, once fans saw the xenomorph of aliens and the Yacha of Predator existed in the same cinematic universe, they couldn't help but imagine the implications, especially of what would happen if these two species happened to face off against each other. Now, there had actually already been just such a crossover a year earlier when Dark Horse published the very first Aliens versus Predator comic in 1989. Dark Horse artist and editor Chris Warner is credited with coming up with the idea. However, seeing the alien skull on the big screen officially made it canon and opened up the idea to many more fans. More comics and stories combining the two franchises would come out soon after Predator 2, but a third Predator movie was way off in the distance.

Unlike the smash hit first movie, the sequel bombed at the box office and is still the lowest grossing film in the franchise. In its defense, Danny Glover wasn't exactly as big of a name as Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the film was going up against Dances with Wolves, Rocky 5, and Home Alone, which, for any of you too young to remember, dominated movie theaters. Home Alone was number one for 12 straight weeks and in the top 10 for nearly seven months. And because the movie bombed, Fox was in no rush to make a third Predator film. While Predator and Predator 2 were released only three years apart, it would take two entire decades before the Yacha got another film all to themselves. However,

in between, the Predators did return in two crossover films inspired by that xenomorph cameo at the end of part two. Now, the next film to feature a Predator was Alien vs. Predator, which was released in 2004 2004, which was released in 2004. Producer. Producers had actually been trying to get this movie made a lot longer than that, though, especially after the AVP comics and the 1994 video game became so popular. But Fox was also working on a fourth Alien movie at this time, so they weren't in any rush. Now, a little later, James Cameron and Ridley Scott were working on an idea for Alien 5, which would eventually evolve into Prometheus, and they wanted nothing to do with the crossover. Cameron said it was corny, like Frankenstein meets Werewolf,

and that the concept would take this ground and seriousness out of the Alien franchise. Now, an early draft of ABP was pretty much a direct adaptation of the first Dark Horse comic, and then Paul W.S. Anderson took over the project after his success with action horror films like Resident Evil and Event Horizon. He wanted to adapt another Dark Horse AVP comic and bring in the idea of ancient aliens. In this case, the ancient aliens who built the pyramids were the Yacha, and the reason there's no evidence of them

is because they would self-destruct their ships and structures if necessary. The predators used Earth as a rite of passage for adolescent hunters called Youngbloods to graduate into true predators, ones who could presumably go off hunting on their own like the two that we saw in the first two films. Now, the trial that took place involved fighting xenomore, so the predators built a temple filled with alien eggs for new predators to hunt.

If anything went wrong and the aliens escaped, no big whoop because it wasn't their planet. Oh yeah, like there's Airbnb guests who never treat the space with any respect, and that is why we time shift. So Anderson set the film in Antarctica for two reasons. One, it was very hostile and looked like an alien planet. And two, it's in the middle of nowhere, so the existence of xenomorphs in the present day does not conflict with the continuity of the Sigourney-Weaver films, which imply that nobody had ever heard of these aliens before. And speaking of continuity, the first actor,

for the film was Lance Hendrickson, who played Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3. Anderson wanted to keep a familiar face around to establish that AVP was indeed part of the same timeline as the earlier films. Hendrickson plays the billionaire owner of Wayland Industries, the same corporation that, after merging with the Japanese rival, would become the company in the alien films. Now, the Bishop Androids that we see in these earlier films were thus an homage to the original Human Hendrickson. Eventually, he eats it in this film, which makes him the only other actor besides Bill Paxton to be killed by a predator, an alien, and a Terminator. Except we never actually see him die in Terminator, and James Cameron said that he almost appeared in the sequel.

And also, technically Ripley kills Bishop and not the alien, but whatever. Along with Hendrickson, the film star Sana Leithin, whose character is loosely based on Machiko from the AVP Comics. Her role establishes an important tradition, that alien films always have a woman as the protagonist. Now, because this was the first alien film not to feature Sigourney Weaver, the filmmakers didn't have to do this, but because they did, every alien movie and show that is followed has had a female protagonist, which fits in nicely with the franchise's themes of body autonomy. Now, along with the hunters, AVP also gives names to the three predator characters, which is also a huge step toward evolving the creature into something more anthropomorphic. We don't hear their names in the film,

obviously, but because one predator early on gets scarred by alien acid blood, he becomes scar. Now, eventually, Scar teams up with Sana Lathan to defeat the alien queen, drowning her at the bottom of the Southern Ocean and an homage to the first two alien films. Scar is killed in the fight and the other Yacha come to take his body home like at the end of Predator 2. And like at the end of Batman Returns. However, unlike the End of Predator 2, or Batman Returns, or Batman Returns, is that Scarra's corpse has already been implanted by a face hugger. The film ends with a chestburster bursting out of his chest and we see that this xenomorph has mandible jaws like a predator. It is in fact a pred alien. Now remember, chestburster xenomorphs take on the properties of their host.

That's why the alien and alien 3, which came out of an ox, is less bipedal. And it's also why the coolest alien action figure of all is the mantis alien. Right, how did chestburster come out of a praying mantis? It's... just don't think about it. Anyways, this pred alien sets up the sequel, Aliens versus Predator Requiem. Wait, why they add the Requiem? It's best not to think about it. It's the AVP Requiem came out in 2007 and is directed by the Brother Strauss.

The fictional Russian brothers who each embody a different aspect of the human psyche? No, that's the brothers Karamazov. The brother Strauss, Greg and Colin, are Hollywood special effects artists who also directed Skyline and literally nothing else, at least not feature length. Like with Skyline, the filmmaker saved money by casting mostly TV stars instead of feature film actors. Requiem stars Rescue Me, Stephen Pasquale, and 24's Raycoe Aylesworth as two locals in Colorado. Now, you could argue that Pasquale is more the protagonist than Aylesworth, which might make this the only alien film to break with that tradition

that I just mentioned. Another notable thing about this movie is that, again, it's set in Colorado, specifically a rural town, making this the only real time until Alien Earth that we see Xenomorphs attack regular Earthlings. Remember, the last film, while set on Earth, was in a Predator Temple in Antarctica. Requium picks up right where AVP left off, with the Pred alien hatching and killing the Predators on board. The ship that was carrying Scar's body home crashes into the woods outside the Colorado town. Answering a distress call from the ship, another Yacha named Wolf, heads from the predator homeworld to kill the pred alien, which is more of an alien than a predator,

just as how a xenomorph isn't really a human despite coming from one. Alien eggs aboard the crash ship hatch and aliens take over the town. The pred alien breeds differently, thanks to lots of Yacha blood, and in a gruesome scene, impregnates and kills a maternity ward full of pregnant women with more aliens. Ah, geez. Yeah, I should mention that this is a gory movie and completely rated R. This was a direct response to the first AVP movie only being PG-13.

the only movie in either franchise that was not rated R. Fans were disappointed with the concessions that a PG-13 movie has to make, which is why the studio pivoted back to an R for the sequel. Anyways, the American military ends up nuking the entire town to destroy the aliens. However, the Predator's weapon is salvaged and given to Ms. Utani. This helps establish how her company, after merging with Waylands, already has some knowledge of extraterrestrials. Perhaps they even use the alien tech to become the mega corporation in the future.

Now, the brother Strauss also wanted to link to the Predator, franchise and have Adam Baldwin reprised his role for Predator 2. But this didn't happen. While the movie disappointed a lot of people and ended the AVP franchise, it did give us a brief look at the Predator homeworld and showed us what it would look like if an alien impregnated a predator. So there's that at least. Three years after Requiem, the Predator franchise got its third solo film, Predators. It's a great name for a predator sequel, considering its close connection to the alien franchise. Remember, the sequel to Alien was just called aliens. and the sequel to the Godfather was the Godfathers.

No, no, it wasn't. Well, what the heck did I watch on Tubby last night? Okay. Predator was directed by Nimrod and Tal, the Hungarian filmmaker who made the very cool thriller control, as well as Vacancy and Armored. However, the script was actually written by Robert Rodriguez, the man behind Spy Kids, from Dust Till Dawn, Sin City,

and so many more great films. Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream. He was also very hands-on while producing the film. Way back in 1994, while he was working on his breakout film Desperado, Fox asked him to write Predator 3. However, they deemed it would be too expensive to make his script and they shelved it for more than 15 years. One reason it would be so expensive to film in 1994 is that it takes place on an alien planet and features multiple predators and other creatures. Rodriguez's idea was, rather than the predators go to Earth to hunt humans, they'd bring the humans to them. It's not their

home planet, but like one of those places outside of town where you go paintballing, I guess. essentially a predator game preserve. Now, the humans don't know how they were kidnapped or transported to space, but they wake up in the middle of parachuting down to the planet. They team up and quickly realize that they're not just any humans, but they're each predators in their own right. This makes them more respectable prey for the four yacha who are hunting them. Some are violent criminals, and some are soldiers, and one is,

who for Grace? Who were you? You hired him last week. Freelance. I did? What's that smell? Now, eventually, in a twist, we find out the Grace is actually a serial killer who becomes an antagonist at the end of the film.

In addition to Grace, the cast of Predators is absolutely stacked. It has two two-time Oscar winners, which is crazy, Adrian Brody, and Mahershiela Ali. Also in the cast, we have Lawrence Fishburn, Walt Gagons, Alice Braga, and this being a Robert Rodriguez film after all, Danny Trejo. Now, unfortunately for the audience, Trejo is taken out very early in the film. Peter, hit me in the nose with a football. I can't go to the deaths like this. The film fills in a little bit more into the Predator mythology.

Alice Braga's character mentions the events of the first Predator directly linking the sequel. And we also see alien beasts that are kind of like predator bloodhounds, a similar idea that appears in the next predator films. We also discover Yacha monuments and that there are blood feuds in their society. It's some kind of blood feud, I guess, been going on for a long time. This hints at a complex Yacha society that we get glimpses of in the films, but it could be explored so much more, like a Predator Game of Thrones. Game of Burns. Yeah, that. Get on that Disney. That's a great idea. Anyways, one predator is even held captive by the others. Now eventually, the humans free this captive and team up with it, defeating the ones hunting them.

The movie ends with them stranded on the planet as more prey is parachuting in. While the cast and filmmakers were down for a direct sequel, it never happened and we never see these characters again. Instead, the next film wouldn't be released for another eight years and it wouldn't have any connection to predators. This fourth Predator movie was called The Predator. Er, like there's gritty, grounded takes and established characters like The Wolverine and the Batman. For the Bart, the...

Yeah, except The Predator isn't gritty, it's actually kind of a comedy. That's because it was written and directed by Shane Black, the same guy who makes serious action films and thrillers like Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys, but then he infuses them with his trademark witty dialogue. I got two ladies, let's go. Hey, come on, I want. Sorry. Now, as I mentioned before, Shane Black also wasn't new to the Predator franchise, since he had co-starred in the very first film, which came out 31 years before The Predator. There's also a Hollywood rumor that he was hired to be an actor, so he would be on set to do rewrites to the script because filming occurred during the writer's strike. but that's never been confirmed. Now, the script was co-written with Fred Decker,

who also worked with Shane Black when he directed and co-wrote the 80s film The Monster Squad. 50 Cent was in talks to play a major role, and Benicio del Toro was cast as the lead. But eventually, he had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts. Instead, Logan's Boyd Holbrook plays the protagonist and co-stars with Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Yvonne Strahawks, and Jacob Tremblay, the child actor from Room and Good Boys. Edward James Almost was also cast as a general, but his scenes were cut.

Now, Boyd Holbroke plays an Army sniper who teams up with a group of misfit military prisoners played by Trevante Rhodes, Kagan Michael Key, Thomas Jane, and Alfie Allen. This group provides much of the film's humor, although characters like Sterling K. Brown Also have Shane Black's patented quirky personalities. When this is over, you and me, we're going to dance. Got my shoes all picked up. Brown plays the head of a CIA Blacksop Division called Project Stargazer, which knows about the Yacha and is tracking them.

In the books, it's also revealed that Stargazer is made up of disavowed agents and soldiers, which makes them less ethical than other government agencies. Well, we took a vote. Predators Cooling, right? It's also strongly implied to be evolved from the otherworldly life forms division that we see in Predator 2. In fact, Jake Busey plays Sean Keyes, a stargazer scientist. Now, Jake is the real-life son of Gary Bucy and plays the son of Bucy's character Peter Keyes, who is killed by a Yacha and Predator 2. Now, this directly sets the film in the main Predator timeline. Shane Black says it takes place between Predator 2 and Predators. Now, that's odd,

since the third film came out years earlier, but nothing contradicts either film taking place before the other, since Predators occurred entirely on an alien planet. Yeah, but didn't Predator cheer take place and like a dystopian future? Well, that's a good point, and you can mostly hand-wave that away. It's a dystopian future that took place in 1997, over 20 years earlier than The Predator. And while it was a few years in the future, we don't see too much advanced tech, other than, like, the cops having laser sights on their pistols. And hey, who wasn't obsessed with laser pointers in the 90s, am I right?

It's in your eye now. Los Angeles having a subway was also considered futuristic, but it has that today, and it looks just like the one of the movie because, well, it was. As for the gang wars and the high crime rate, while it was over the top, it wasn't exactly dystopian. You could easily argue that it happened in the timeline of the predator, and the city eventually got cleaned up by some hotshot mayor or something. Anyway, after a predator ship crashes, Boyd Holbrook sends a predator mask and some armor to

his home in suburban America. He does this because he knows the government will probably lock up. him away or worse to hide the existence of aliens and he wants proof as collateral. The predator armor is opened by Boyd's autistic son, played by Trimbley, which makes him a target for the predator. Boyd and company then tried to rescue him while on the run from Stargazer. However, midway through the film, the plot thickens when another predator arrives, and this one hunts the other predators. In effect, this justifies the title in the film. Shane Black didn't add the definitive article The, just because it sounds cool, like The Batman. Or that one-time Clark kit was called The Superman by

Zack Snyder for some reason. In this case, the predator is actually the second one, the predator that hunts predators. He's not just any yachtcha either. He is over 11 feet tall, towering even over the 7 foot normal predators. This upgrade predator has altered DNA and was likely engineered by the yacha. The characters even speculate the DNA is coming from the various species the predators hunt from across the galaxy, taking the best of what each species has to offer, similar to the Star Trek's Borg or Men in Black's Alpha. Bad boy. So this makes the Ultimate Predator stronger, faster, and more durable.

Like Luke Cage, he or she or she, is shown to have bulletproof skin. The Ultimate Predator even has thermal vision without needing a mask, meaning its eyes are either genetically enhanced or use implants. The Ultimate Predator immediately kills the first predator and becomes the antagonist for the rest of the movie. Eventually, he kidnaps Jake and Tremblay, who, because he is an autistic savant, was able to figure out how to use the predator technology. The film implies that the predator sees his autism as an evolutionary advantage

that the Yacha can then incorporate into their own hybrids. Now, this is a pretty problematic take that got the filmmakers in trouble after the movie was released. Autism and neurodiversity are complicated subjects, with nuances that an action comedy like the predator are not fully equipped to handle. Treating autism like a superpower is a plot point that kind of sours the movie as a whole, especially since this is so integral to the story of the film. Now, in the end, the Predator is defeated and Boyd Holbrook joined Stargazer.

The film ends with a teaser of a predator killer preserved in a metal box. Now, there is a lot of build-up to the box opening, and then when it does, we see that it's some kind of exoskeleton suit or something. Boyd Holbrook says that he can wear it and kill predators, which I guess is what the next film would be about. I would have liked to see it. Now, as this sounds kind of ho-hum, that's because it was kind of a tact on ending. There was a more complicated subplot about a war with the predators and the ultimate predators,

which involved Edward James Almost's scenes. The original ending was supposed to have a chopper land, and then Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch would come out and tell Boyd Holbrook and Jake and Trimbley to, well, you know, Get to the chopper! Arnold turned down the role, though, saying he didn't like the script and that his role was too small, which is an odd choice since the scene was clearly setting up a sequel

with a much bigger role for him. It may have also conflicted with his filming for Terminator Dark Fate. Now, another alternate ending was actually filmed, and this one was very similar to the movie. ending we got. However, when the box opens, instead of an exosuit, it reveals Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise. Her face is covered with a breathing mask that looks like a mechanical facehugger, and Ripley is played by stuntwoman Brianna Watkins. Now, this would have involved time travel and set up a third Alien vs. Predator movie, and possibly even brought back Sigourney

Weaver. But instead, we got the exoskeleton armor that we've seen in a hundred other films. Another connection to the franchise would have been the appearance of actress Francois Yip in a non-speaking role known as the tracking supervisor. Now, while this scene did get cut and Yip's role was replaced by another actor, her name still appears in the end-credit scroll. Now, Yip played Mizz Yutani and AVP Requiem 11 years earlier, but this almost certainly was not related. Now, along with expanding the predator mythology

with the ultimate predator in either larger wars for Earth or a Yatcha Civil War, we also got more predator hounds. Now, these hounds aren't exactly like the ones we saw in predators. They're basically giant dogs with the predators' trillions. trademark dreadlocks. Black originally wanted to have predator spiders and predator hybrids with multiple arms. Now another connection is to a movie that wouldn't come out for another six years. We see the idea of a pod preserving a warrior worthy of fighting the predators. In this case, Ellen Ripley and Predator Killer of Killers.

But before we get to that, there is one film in between these two. Man, this franchise is don't die, does it? Come on, kill me. I'm here. Come on, do it now! Nope, and it's a good thing too, because the fifth predator film is one of the most innovative and original of them all. It's not even called Predator. It's called Prey. Shane Black's Predator was not a smash hit, and when Disney bought Fox, a lot of projects were canceled or put on hold. Instead of a direct sequel to the Predator, we got Prey. Now, the film was actually in development even before the Predator

came out, with Dan Tractonberg and Patrick Eisen pitching the concept that would eventually become the film. Tractonberg had previously directed 10 Cloverfield Lane and was selected to develop the next Predator film. Originally titled Skolls, Tractonberg originally wanted the film to be marketed without mentioning the Predator at all. That way, when the Predator did finally appear in the movie, it would be a huge surprise for audiences. Now, of course, Disney would never let a good IP go to waste, and the film was definitively marketed as a Predator sequel, hence the similar name, Prey. However, anybody stumbling onto the movie on cable who didn't see the marketing was still likely be surprised at the twist. Prey is a period film set in 1719 and focuses on a young Comanchee woman named Nauru in the Great Plains.

Now, Nauru is played by Amber Mid Thunder, who had also starred in FX's Legion. The film's story focuses a lot on her character and how she aspires to be a hunter, even though her tribe wants her to follow tradition and become a healer. The filmmakers considered having the film start in Comanchee before transitioning to English, but instead kept it all in English. However, they also filmed an entire Comanche dub, the first of its kind, that is available when you watch the film on Hulu or Disney Plus. She goes on a hunt involving a cougar and later a grizzly bear, with only a few tiny hints foreshadowing that there is an alien who is among them. Eventually, the predator is revealed, killing off both Comanche and French

French traders. Now the French interpreter Raphael Aldani is also killed, but not before giving his flintlocked pistol to Nauru. The pistol is actually the same pistol that we saw at the end of Predator 2, which came out 32 years before prey. The pistol the elder predator gives to Danny Glover has Rafael A'Dillini's name on it, as well as the year 1719. A Nauru eventually beats the predator one-on-one, similar to the structure of earlier films, especially that first film with Arnold. Unlike Arnold, Nauru only has early 18th century technology at her disposal, making this a true David versus Goliath kind of fight. Like the Ewarks fighting the Empire.

Exactly. After Nauru defeats the predator in battle by turning his own tech against him, she returns to the tribe and is named War Chief, and she still has the flintlock pistol, which begs the question, how did the elder predator have it at the end of Predator too? Now we might get a hint of how in the end credits, which depict the events of the film through Indigenous Ledger Art.

This art also portrays three more predators descending down on the tribe, perhaps to avenge the death of the one that Nauru killed. You could surmise that they came down and killed Nauru and took the flintlock as a trophy, with one of them perhaps even being the elder we saw in Predator 2. However, there's two reasons that's almost certainly not what happened. For one thing, we know that usually when a Predator has killed in a fair fight, the other Yatcha come down to reclaim the body and spare the human victor.

For another, we briefly see Nauru alive in the future in the next film. This next film is called Predator Killer of Killers, and it's notable for two reasons. For one, it's the only animated feature in the franchise. It was direct to streaming, debuting on Hennarue. Hulu and Disney Plus. Now, this follows Prey, which was also direct to streaming. The second reason Killer of Killer stands out is that, also like Prey, it's directed by Dan Tractonberg, who co-wrote the film with Miko Robert Routaire. Now, this makes it the first time a director has done more than one Predator film, let alone back to back. Now, while Predator creators Jim and John

Thomas did write Predator 2, they did not have the creative control that Tractonberg has, making him really the first filmmaker to outright make another Predator film. Tractonberg then went on to make a third Predator movie, essentially taking over the franchise, similar to what Christopher Macquarie did with the Mission Impossible franchise or David Yates with Harry Potter. Prey was a huge critical hit, with many praising its stripped-down structure compared to movies like The Predator and AVP, as well as its elevated storytelling and direction, including Amber Midthunders' great performance. Now, because of this, and the fact that Disney might handle franchises differently than Fox,

we're now getting multiple Predator movies from the same filmmaker. Killer of Killers isn't a direct sequel to Pray, though. Instead, it's essentially an anthology film comprising four stories. The first three take place in very different time periods and feature the typical stories we know, where a predator takes out a group of warriors before facing one or two final survivors. In this case, we get three protagonists, a Viking named Ursa, a samurai named Kenji, and a World War II pilot named Torres. Now, because these are all period pieces, they are a spiritual sequels to prey,

showing how different warriors of different cultures handle being hunted by a predator. The fourth and final vignette, though, is the most interesting because it brings all three together on an alien planet. Now, because they're from centuries apart, this means that the predators have the technology to keep humans alive in suspended animation for hundreds of years. The three are essentially gladiators who are forced to fight to the death in a giant arena for the amusement of the yacha. The winner is supposed to then fight the leader, who may be the president of the predators or perhaps a local warlord. It's hard to say. Although it's probably a warlord of like a desert tribe, similar to how the Harkin and an arena scene isn't exactly

a representation of the culture that we see as a whole in the Dune movie. The three humans don't speak the same language, but they eventually team up and refuse to fight one another. In response, the Yacha unleashed a giant alien creature, sort of like what happens in Attack of the Clones. What about Padman? The three warriors killed the creature before battling the Predator Warlord, two of them escape using a Yacha spaceship. Ah, good thing one I'm as a pilot. Yeah, I know, right? Lucky. Speaking of which, Michael Behan provides the voice of another World War II pilot in this film.

That's a fun little connection to the wider Aliens' Predator universe as a whole, since Behan played Colonel Hicks, in aliens. Anyways, the third warrior, the Viking Ursa, sacrifices herself to let the other two escape. She doesn't die, though, she is merely captured and put back into suspended animation. Now, here's where things get interesting. In the original film, after she's put back in stasis, we see there are also chosen warriors who are also kept in suspended animation. That includes Nauru, Amber Midthunders character from Prey. Remember, Ursa is from over a thousand years ago, so Nauru being frozen since the 1700s isn't that big of a deal for the Yacha. Even more exciting is that an extended version was released, which shows that, in addition to Ursa and

Nauru, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch and Danny Glover's Harrigan are also being kept in suspended animation. Now, this is a huge plot twist for the franchise. Basically, anyone who has survived a Predator film, whether it's Adrian Brody or Jake and Trimbley could be brought back for more movies. You could even use the original actors. I mean, who's to say that Danny Glover's Harrigan wasn't abducted decades after the events of Predator 2? Yeah, it's not really fair. They've been captured, though. I thought if you beat a Predator in battle, they spared your life. Well, that's true, but remember, we still don't know much about the Yatcha Society. It may not be this monopolistic one-world society.

It could be made up of several different independent tribes or nations, just like planet Earth. Perhaps the warlord we see in Killer of Killers plays by his own rules, and is kidnapping the earthlings against the wishes of the other predators. And this would play right into Shane Black's idea of a predator war, with ultimate predators hunting down their own kind. And remember, at least one predator was being held captive by others in Robert Rodriguez's Predators. Now, because Dan Tractonberg is behind Killer of Killers and other Predator films, he's more likely to tie this entire franchise together. It's going to be exciting to see

how characters like Nauru, Dutch, and Haringen are used in future predator stories. I mean, for all we know, they might appear in Tractenberg's third film, Predator Badlands. And that's because, when we made this video, the film had not come out yet. But Tractenberg has said that he has future plans for Nauru, and it would be weird if those plans were just an animated cameo of her in Stasis. Yeah, that would literally be suspended animation. Very good. Now, there's also a tie-in prequel comic to Predator Badlands and expands upon the story. Now, we'd get into that, but there are countless comic books, novels, and novellas set in the Predator Universe with varying degrees of canon. If we were to go through all of them, we would be here all day, and Doug's got

judo practice tonight. I am a third tier brownbound. But there are a few more that we should definitely mention. For example, the very first Predator comic, which was published by Dark Horse. Now, Dark Horse is actually behind most of the Predator Comics. The first comic was released in 1989. It was called Concrete Jungle. Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't hunt and care. Now Concrete Jungle is essentially Predator 2 set during a heat wave in a big city. Unlike Predator 2, though, the city is in New York. In New York, Concord. You done yet?

Yeah, sorry. Instead of Danny Glover, the cop is Detective John Schaefer, the brother of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch. John becomes a protagonist in a few other Predator comics over the years, including both Dark Horse Comics and newer Marvel books, including one that's published nearly 35 years after the first. 2004's The Last Hunt. Other notable Predator Comics include stories about predators hunting inmates inside a maximum security prison, a team of mercenaries who hunt predators, and also Big Game. Set in present day, Big Game is about a Navajo American soldier named Enoch Nikai who faces off with the same predator his great-grandfather encountered 75 years earlier. As mentioned before, Dark Horse also

published Alien vs Predator Comics between 1989 and 2020. Now, this wasn't the only predator crossover either. The Yacha have crossed over with all kinds of IP, including an Alien versus Predator versus Terminator story that was also a direct sequel to Alien Resurrection. Predators have also had run-ins with multiple superheroes too, including Batman, Superman, and Judge Dredd. With Dread, you have futuristic sci-fi stories, and there are a lot of plot mechanics to make a Superman Predator fight more fair, but Batman versus Predator offers stories closer to what we've seen in Predator 2. Some of the stories are set in Gotham City during a heat wave and incorporate interesting characters and ideas into the plot.

For example, in Batman v. Predator 3, a predator kills all of Mr. Freeze's henchmen, but spares freeze himself. Why? Because with his thermal vision, it couldn't see Mr. Freeze. Now, another crossover I can't go without mentioning, is Archie versus Predator. Stay at the Riverdale. The first issues were published in 2015, with AVP, the A standing for Archie, part two coming out in 2019. Spoilers, if you want to read it, but Archie is killed by the predator who has a crush on Betty.

And eventually, Betty turns Predator into a new Archie. Even Tarzans had to fight a predator or two. So now that Disney owns Fox and also owns Marvel, we're also getting Predator crossovers with Marvel characters like Wolverine and Black Panther, as well as Spider-Man. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, please don't put your eggs in me! In fact, the Yacha have battled all of Marvel's characters because, in 2025, Marvel published, Predator Kills the Marvel Universe.

And this crossover story, a Predator King, equipped with Vibranium-enhanced weapons, makes all of Earth its hunting grounds. It's basically Marvel Zombies, but with Predators. Geez, where's that animated Disney series? Right? So, in addition to Predator Comics and novels, there are also a ton of Predator video games. The first was, naturally, based on the first movie, and came out in 1987 as an action side-scroller.

You could play it on systems like the NES, Atari ST, and Commodore 64. Predator 2 also had a video game, but it was a rail shooter and not a side-scroller. A Predator 2 game also came out for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear. So the next game to feature the Yacha was Alien vs. Predator, the Super Nintendo game I mentioned earlier, that was many people's introduction to the crossover. In the game, you play as a predator, and, because it's a beat-em-up, you beat up alien xenomorphs. It's also interesting that in AVP comics, the predators are always the good guys.

Now, the aliens, for the most part, are almost always universally portrayed as mindless killers at worse, or evil-plotting intelligent killers at best. The game is also interesting because of its surprising level of world-building, which isn't canon, but nevertheless, it's cool. It takes place in the futuristic city of New Shanghai on the planet, Vega-4. Instruction workers accidentally hatched the buried alien eggs and the xenoborphs take over the entire city. A distress signal is sent out, which a predator ship responds to. Bosses include a gorilla alien, a bat alien, a snake alien, and even a dolphin alien.

Did I say killer dolphins? I meant killer Italians. The AVP game came out in 1993, as did another one for the Game Boy the same year and a Jaguar game a year later. There's also an arcade AVP game around the same time where three players could team up to fight aliens. Now, what's funny about this game is that one player can be a predator while teaming up with another who can be Dutch from the first film. Or if they can change, maybe we can all change. Now Dutch, though, has a cybernetic arm in this timeline, and he's trying to stop a xenomorph invasion in California. An original playable character, Lieutenant Lynn Kurosawa, was created for the game and later appeared in Street Fighter sequels and Namco X Capcom.

Meanwhile, the Jaguar version of the game was actually one of the earliest first-person shooters and had three separate campaigns. One is a xenomorph, one as a colonial marine, and one as a predator. If you play as the predator, your goal is to claim the skull of the alien queen. But xenomorphs can see you even if you're cloaked. Plus, you're penalized for killing anything while invisible. The dime teaches fairness, which more games should do. A similar AVP game came out in 1999. When you play as the predator, you visit various planets,

including Fury 161 from Alien 3. A 2003 sequel to the game also allowed you to play as the predator, and you could even use various vision frequencies in addition to infrared. Now, this is pretty much the only time outside of the Predator 2 movie where we're reminded that Predators can do this. And the list of AVP games goes on and on, including mobile games, arcade games, handheld options,

like for the PSP, VR, and of course, PC and consoles. Just as there was a big gap between Solo Predator movies between 2 and 3, there was also a big gap in Solo Predator games around this time. A mobile Predator game in 2004 was actually the first since 1990s Predator 2 tie-in. Then a game title Concrete Jungle came out for PS2, and Xbox in 2005. It starts off in the 1930s and has the Predator facing off with the Mafia, basically making him the Punisher with Dreadlocks. The game also features a Predator-Human hybrid,

which is something we haven't seen in the movies yet. The game also features the concept of Bad Bloods, Predators who are exiled from their clan because they showed dishonor in some way. And finally, there was Predator Hunting Grounds, which came out in 2020 for PS4 and PC, but it's also a current-gen game as well. It's notable because it brings back three actors from previous movies, Alice Braga from Predators, Jake Busey from The Predator, and yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Predator. The game is an asymmetrical multiplayer, like Dead by Daylight or Friday the 13th. Four players are the humans, and one is the predator hunting them. It's also the first time in any of the video games since 1987 that you can play as a female yacha, something that would also be cool to see in the movies. In addition to the video games, there's also an aliens predator card game, some RPGs, and some board games, including an AVP version of Clue, which is hilarious.

It was the Ultimate Predator in the jungle with a razor disc. And while this isn't a game, there are even some teams called The Predators. I don't mean like the Nashville Predators in the NHL either, which use a Sabretooth Tiger logo. I mean actual Predators, with the team showing Yacha wearing football helmets and stuff like that. Obviously, these are more minor league and unofficial teams. But now that Disney owns the IP, it would be cool if we got a pro-level Predators team, like how the company literally made the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Oh yeah, they could also make an aliens team.

if we're lucky, we get aliens versus predators in the Super Bowl. That would be sick. High five. So all of this shows the impact that Predator has had on pop culture in the nearly 40 years since it debuted. Now, while it may not be on the level of Star Wars or Star Trek, it is certainly up there as one of the most well-known and beloved franchises that we have. Now, here's what we know about Predator Badlands, which is set for release in November 2025,

nearly four decades after the first film debuted. For one thing, this is the seventh Predator movie in live action that's not animated. For another, it has the same right. and same director as Prey. It takes place on an alien planet, which may very well be Yacha Prime, or Jenna, the Death Planet. It stars Demetrius Schuster Komomatinaig as an outcast predator named Deck. The first time a predator is the protagonist of a movie. Now, we have seen good predators before, like Scar and Aliens versus Predator, but this is the first time it will really be a character

piece with a Yacha up front. The film may also be loosely adapting a Dark Horse comic about a predator named a Condi. Badlands also co-stars El Fanning, who is playing with the protagonist and an antagonist of the film. That's because she's an android with multiple models and distinct personalities. One teams up with deck, while the other is at odds with them. From what we've already seen for her character already, these Androids are very much in line with the technology from the aliens franchise, with aliens like Ash, Bishop and David. Now, Tractenberg has said that Badlands is a standalone film, but remember, this is the guy who wanted prey to be a stealth predator movie with Zero Marketing beforehand. Considering the Android technology, we know this movie

must take place at least 200 years from now, which is when the first alien with Sigourney Weaver takes place. Although it could be set much later than that, because we know in Tractenberg's canon that the Yacha can preserve humans for centuries or millennia in suspended animation. So that also means that the characters of Badlands may overlap with previous characters like Dutch or more likely, Nauru. Considering the white-blooded androids are much more of an alien thing than a predator thing, Badlands may also be stealthily setting up in Aliens v. Predator reboot. Perhaps Badlands takes place around the same time as Alien Romulus, with characters from each meeting in a full-on Aliens versus Predator movie that Disney will release.

Now, if you're watching this video, you know better than we do at this point. That's because you're in the future and Doug and I are in the present, which is in your past. When will then be now? Soon. Even after Predator Badlands, I'm sure we haven't heard the last from the Yacha. Maybe Disney will do what they did with Alien and even give us a unique, sophisticated streaming series. And if there's anything we can take away from the Predator films, it's that they can tell the same story but in diverse ways, whether it's an 80s action film, a period indigenous film, or a shame black comedy.

So, who knows what the next Predator movie will be? Maybe a dance musical. It's called Predator! Big shout out to Jack Bocone who wrote this video. You can find his links below. And in the comments, I want you to tell me what's the most underrated predator property. Is it a game, a comic, a video game, one of the movies? Let me know what Predator people are missing out on down in the comments.

And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Spring Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.