‘The Predator’ Producer Hopes to Launch a Trilogy

The upcoming The Predator is the fourth film in the Predator franchise and technically the sixth film to feature the monster when including the Alien vs. Predator films. Fans will have to wait until September 14th to see if Shane Black‘s vision of the series can revive the franchise, though one producer hopes that this is merely the first chapter in a trilogy of films.

John Davis, who has produced every film in the franchise, admitted to Variety that he hoped this new film would be followed by two sequels, potentially with Black at the helm.

“This is an auteur-driven reimagining,” the producer explained. “Shane Black has a voice and a signature, and it kind of re-enlivens the franchise.”

Black himself is seemingly excited to be part of the series, though he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself with how far the franchise will continue following this film.

“I would love to say we’ve been planning a trilogy, but I take one day at a time,” Black confessed. “In motion-picture terms that’s one movie at a time.”

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.

One of the new components of Black’s film is the introduction of the “Ultimate Predator,” which poses a threat not just to humanity, but to the otherworldly hunters that have served as the antagonists in previous films.

“If the [ultimate] predator was to be an amalgam of, not just an ordinary predator, but also a collection of traits garnered from the various most powerful species that they’ve hunted, then you basically would have one that is stronger, faster, and smarter,” Black detailed of the new creature to Entertainment Weekly. “We finally got an image that we liked, which captures this very canny, very cunning, and effortlessly powerful, savage predator. One of the only quibbles that I’ve had with some of the past predators is that, if you’re not careful, it can look like a guy in a football suit; big, bulky guy just stomping around. I wanted a certain more graceful, more light, more athletic quality, literally like a predator. If you watch a cheetah, it’s not clunky.”

Fans can see how the planned trilogy will kick off when The Predator hits theaters on September 14th.

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[H/T Variety]