Shane Black Reveals How ‘The Predator’ Will Reinvent the Franchise

Fans of the Predator franchise are looking forward to this fall’s The Predator, which aims to breathe life into the franchise that has stagnated in recent years. The new film, directed by Shane Black, aims to both honor its predecessors, while Black explained how it will also take the franchise in new directions.

“Well, I think that there’s a basic premise that has to be honored every time you make a Predator film and that’s in some way, whatever the plot turns out to be, it has to, at some level, represent a hunt. But, beyond that, I think there’s infinite variability,” Black shared with Collider. “It’s like monkey bars. You ever play on the jungle gym when you were a kid? It looks like they’re rigid and hard and it’d be hard to play on these things because they’re so rough, but if you go inside them there’s actually a lot of room to move around, you just know that the borders are there every once in a while.”

Many of the previous chapters in the franchise focused on a small group of individuals encountering the beast, with Black promising this new chapter will take things to an all-new level.

“It’s the ambitiousness of not wanting to stay small and just wanting to pack as many different possibilities, themes, and characters,” Black explained of his approach. “I think in the same way that Aliens succeeded so well that you had Bill Paxton and Jeanette Goldstein and Lance Henrikson that were popular. You had great characters. So, I think the death of some of the Predator movies has been a dearth of really intriguing characters that have development.”

The filmmaker also noted that creating a spectacle comes with a hefty pricetag.

“But, beyond that, I think this one is bigger and that it costs more…I know it costs more [laughter],” the director joked. “It’s a hammer over my head. But, that’s where the thriller part comes in. Change the scale, up the stakes and make it as thrilling as you can. I mean, there’s just so many set pieces and sequence and the influences that we were going by are not sort of the spectacle.”

Audiences can see how massive the film is when The Predator lands in theaters on September 14th.

Do you think Black has the chance to kickstart the series? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Collider]