Prey Director Confirms Key Predator Weapon Won't Appear in Film

By Patrick Cavanaugh

The upcoming Predator movie Prey will venture into new territory for the franchise in a number of ways, one of which being that the film won't see the otherworldly characters sporting their devastating plasmacaster to take down its enemies. Given that the new film will see the character facing off against members of the Comanche Nation, director Dan Trachtenberg thought the inclusion of the typically shoulder-mounted weapon would give the threat too much of an advantage. He did promise, however, that the threat will still have a number of other technological advantages, both fresh and familiar. Prey debuts on Hulu on August 5th.

"The primary thing that I wanted to remove was the plasma caster," Trachtenberg confirmed with Empire Magazine. "Just because it just felt like such an instant win button. I wanted to make sure that the fight could be as exciting as possible without stripping it of its advantages. He doesn't have all the tools that he has in the newer movies. But he does have awesome new gadgets for people to see."

While surely this will change the nature of the combat, the Predator has a number of other tools at its disposal that will surely terrify the film's heroes.

Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, Prey is the story of a young woman, Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.

The film stars Amber Midthunder (The Ice Road, Roswell, New Mexico), Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kipp (Sooyii), Michelle Thrush (The Journey Home), and Julian Black Antelope (Tribal).

The filmmaker previously broke down the various gadgets that popped up in the film's trailer.

"I teased a while ago that I took inspiration from the latest God of War video game, and those two things are in the trailer," Trachtenberg revealed to ComicBook.com. "One is his shield, that you see briefly. And the other is not a Predator gadget, but just the way that Nadu wields her axe, she invents something very cool for that Tomahawk. And that comes from a mechanic in that video game. I think the shield is something super cool. There's a couple things that are the same, but even those things function slightly differently."

He continued, "I think our Predator in my mind, not only does he exist, you know, 300 years before, but I think in sci-fi movie terms, time moves very slowly. If the way that Star Wars functions or even Star Trek, you know, it's like 300 years. Ships aren't suddenly like so different. But I think this guy's perhaps from a different hemisphere of the planet and a little bit of a different breed. So even his look is a little new, it's familiar, but new. So I'm excited for people, even for diehard fans, to really see something they hadn't seen before."

Prey lands on Hulu on August 5th.

Are you looking forward to the film? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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