SDCC 2018: ‘The Predator’ Panel Recap

On Thursday morning, 20th Century Fox kicked off San Diego Comic Con’s Hall H line up with a showcase of their upcoming The Predator film.

The cast and director of The Predator take the stage, including Shane Black, Sterling K. Brown, Olivia Munn, Keegan Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Thomas Jane, Augusta Aguilera, and Jake Busey.

A clip from behind the scenes plays…

Rhodes and Brown open it and the cast end up debating who would win fights with the Predator, including The Rock, the Punisher, Sarah Connor, Psylocke, Wolverine, Pennywise, and Yoda. When the clip ends, on stage the cast debate more potential fights for the Predator. “John Wick is the baddest-ass motherf—er,” Olivia Munn said.

The debate over who would win in fights with the Predator continues and continues and continues…

Continued

Boyd Holbrook couldn’t make the panel in San Diego today so he sent a message and the first look at The Predator.

“Hello Comic Con! IT’s Boyd Holbrook here and unfortunately not there…Our team is incredible of course and Shane Black is a legend so you’re ognna love what he’s doing with this franchise…Just to give you a little bit of background, most of us are a little nuts…Here’s the first look at our unique chemistry…”

In character, the cast sit around a motel room and mess with a passed out Olivia Munn. Rhodes tells them to leave her alone. She wakes up and sees them staring at her, all five at the foot of the bed. “Morning sunshine,” Holdbrook said. “I really wish people would stop calling me that,” Munn said. She grabs a shotgun and Key won 10 dollars. Holbrook takes the gun from her. She tries to shoot him in the chest but the gun is empty. Key won another $10 this time. They all laugh. Hey name is Casey Breckett as revealed by an ID card and she’s a scientist. She runs for the door but is kept in the room. Holbrook says they’ll shoot her and let’s her go. Thomas Jane outbusts, “Eat your p—y” and she is caught off guard. The debate what he said and what he meant. Holbrook reveals she was gooing to get shot because of a vile of science. She finds tin foil animals on her bed and goes through her things. Holbrook encourages her to stay because she’ll stay alive. She read their file though, and thinks that he has gotten people killed before. Rhodes wants to know why they’re here in the first place. She’s a biologist and is on call in case there is contact. Holbrook won this bet and the cast erupts again. Holbrook rules they need “to find this thing” and expose it. Munn says it hunts people for sport. The cast debate what that means. Holbrook says he took its gear. 

Continued

Black calls his Predator movie a “leaner, meaner approach” to the franchise. The characters are “all sort of these misfits who come together. It’s important that they’re good at what they do and it’s important that they forgot that.”

“Hopefully there’s lines that people will remember” from the first movie, Black says. 

Key says his favorite thing about being on set is building a culture. “People would come into my trailer and we would watch black exploitation movies,” Key said. They would then try to get those moments into their movie. He even tried to sneak hilarious lines into the movie but none of it worked. “Hijinks and shenanigans between action and cut.”

Munn is asked who would be most likely to hold a government office. “I’m gonna go with Sterling and Keegan,” Munn said. “I am running for Governor of the state of California, I would like all of your votes!”

“Wanna do it Sterling?” Key says. “Brown Key, 2020.”

Continued

Jake is asked about his family legacy in the Predator movies.

“I’m really excited  to be here with these guys,” “I was on the set in the 80s when they were doing Predator 2, it was cool, it was set in the future, my dad was like, ‘Check it out, this is what they’re gonna look like in ’97…I spent 25, 26 years trying to distance myself from being lumped in with everyday, ‘Has anyone ever told you, you look like Gary Busey?’ … After spending all these years of trying tro ld a career in the film industry and not be lumped in with him, this comes along, and it’s really the moment…Shane called me and said, ‘We have this idea and what do you think?’ … So, I’m the same age in this movie that my dad was.”

Thomas Jane is asked about his role as the Punisher and what he’s learned from his characters.

“Learning to fence? Sure. I can kill people with guns!” Jane said.

“We watched John Wick a lot and tried to learn gun tricks,” Munn said. 

Continued

Brown is asked about Black Panther, This Is Us and his career recently. Does he prefer making people happy or sad?

“If I can do both of them in the course of the same thing, then that’s what I’d really like to do,” Brown said. “I like to make people laugh a little bit … My character’s a bit of a lone wolf throughout the trajectory of the film … Every once in a while I got to hang out with them and it would be an absolute blast!”

Before another clip, Black describes the action and tone…

“We assume that there’s a faction on the Predator homeworld that’s been bested not once but twice by Earthlings,” Black said. “They sent their champions to Earth and they don’t come home. They don’t like that. So, they figured, they want to punch back. There’s a contentious bunch of Predator homeworld and they might not be above roiding, so to speak … We devised this idea, it’s a n idea but it’s mostly an image, it’s mostly something we had to find visually because you can’t alter the make-up of the Predator too thoroughly … we had to emphasize what the Predators do. They’re fast. They’re deadly. They’re live. They move fast and they hit and they strike and retreat and it’s that feeling of deadly purpose and absolute blood  curdling f—ing efficency. … These guys move like the wind, they come, they cut you, they leave, and you’re cut when they’re done. They kill you. That’s what we wanted. Just these completely savage brutal creatures and then we got us and R-rating!”

Continued

The next clip plays.

Holbrook and Munn try to hide with a young kid as a Predator approaches. They’re looking at it through a window but one comes up behind them. After it grabs Holbrook, something rips it through a window. An unmasked Predator reveals itself in front of the armed cast. They look at one another with heat vision. The much larger, apparently friendly Predator, fights the smaller one and tosses it around with ease while the humans flee into an RV. The larger Predator takes the other’s mask off, punches it, and rips its head off. Green blood falls. It tosses its head. “What are they hunting each other now? Munn asks. 

A sizzle reel starts. It’s loaded with violence. Fights in the woods. Explosions and trucks flipping. Ships crash. It’s quick cutting action.

mm

Continued

Black emphasizes how important the green Predator blood is.

Rhodes goes on to talk about the chemistry he had with his co-stars. Brown points out this is Aguilera’s first movie. Black adds that it is also Alfie Allen’s first movie.

Fans begin asking questions about who would win in a fight, prompting Shane Black to point out a flaw in Avengers: Infinity War‘s Thanos. 

“One moment there’s a train coming at him he can turn it into a flock of birds. The next minute Spider-Man is coming at him and he’s like, ‘Oh, my eyes! It’s got webbing!’ I loved the movie, it’s just, the kid had to do something, so…” 

Continued

A fan asks if there is a connection to Xenomorphs in The Predator.

“The Xenamorphs were sort of different think to us,” Black said.

“First film happened second film happened other stuff happened, we’re a sequel not a reboot,” Black says. There is no “direct tie” to other Alien movies. “We’ve focused on this one instance in which a particular angry Predator” which have emerged, Black said. Still, he isn’t officially ruling it out.

“I don’t think AvP is dead, do you?”