The Predator was meant to serve as not only a sequel to the sci-fi franchise, but also as a soft reboot of the series, delivering audiences all-new intergalactic terrors. The production toyed with introducing multiple different new hybrid creatures, with the film’s concept artist, Constantine Sekeris, sharing images of a Predator/monkey hybrid that existed in early stages of the script.
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“Production designer Martin Whist and [director] Shane Black had notes exactly that of multi-limb hybrid Predator monkey,” Sekeris shared with AvP Galaxy. “Early part of the script there were a lot of different hybrid creatures that Tully Summers and myself tackled. I’m not sure if 3D were in the ship in the pods or the Predator Scientists/Emmisaries were experimenting with different animals and mixing DNA. I think there were some initial quick ideas and wanted to see some quick options to explore if it was something to refine later. In the end all that was cut out of the final edit of the film. Regardless, was still fun tackling this as an exercise.”
From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black‘s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.
This new chapter in the series stars Boyd Holbrook, Quinn McKenna, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Alfie Allen, Thomas Jane, Augusto Aguilera, and Jake Busey.
Much of the Predator series has focused on the iconic hunter, though various versions of the monsters have debuted in earlier installments. The Predator might have opted out of including the above hybrids, yet it did feature the return of Predator dogs.
“We were trying to stay away from matching any previous design on them,” visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart explained to Collider in regards to designing the beasts. “So we try to keep it where at least we have some familiar aspects to the dogs that you can bring back to the Predators. Such as, they have some level of dreads to them. And their mouths are not the same as a Predator mouth, but they do have that kind of distended jaw a little bit. It doesn’t open sideways like that, but it still has some similarities, just to keep it in the same realm. The skin tones have some similarities as well.”
The Predator is slated to land on Blu-ray and DVD on December 18th.
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