There are still a lot of people who believe the Predator franchise has been in decline ever since the original 1987 film. However, in the year 2025, those naysayers would be very wrong to look at Predator with a side-eye. Because slowly but surely over the last few years, Predator has managed to beat all odds and climb out of the rut of start-and-stop reboot attempts. The film franchise has carved a relevant path back onto screens, offering viewers new kinds of stories set in the Predator universe.
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At the same time, the latest installments of Predator have also woven together a larger shared universe narrative that is still building up to some kind of epic “event” that has yet to be revealed. But no one should be in a rush; Predator is delivering some of the most fun sci-fi/horror genre content around right now, and more fans should be delighting in where things are at and where they are headed next.
Predator Has Been On A Run Since Its Surprise Prequel
The years after the COVID-19 pandemic have been chaotic for TV and movie entertainment. The streaming wars began during lockdowns, and the content slates for television and movie projects were blown wide open. Every studio made a play to develop its library of franchise IPs into entire multimedia content blocks, and Disney has been no different since it acquired 20th Century Fox, which owned both the Predator and Alien franchises.
What no one knew at the time was that 20th Century Studios had begun developing a top-secret Predator prequel project with filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) and screenwriter John Davis, who worked on Shane Black’s The Predator (2018), an installment that underformed and all but stalled the franchise. Trachtenberg’s take was to tell the story of a Comanche woman trying to break gender barriers to prove herself as a capable warrior and hunter, which just so happens to feature a Predator as the means of that proof. We can only speculate what the effect would’ve been had the original marketing and release plans gone ahead, but since the COVID-19 shutdown of Hollywood, the film that became Prey (2022) was eventually revealed to be a Predator prequel – not that it hindered anything.
Prey was shifted to being a Hulu streaming release, but ultimately performed well enough and generated positive enough buzz that it could’ve easily been a big-screen contender. More importantly, though, Trachtenberg stumbled onto a new focus for the franchise, telling anthology stories about different warriors throughout history, instead of always keeping the stories set in modern times.
The changes in setting instantly shifted the dynamics of Predator, with protagonists like Prey hero Naru (Amber Midthunder) relying on wits and ingenuity rather than big guns, brawn, or bravado. It also allowed for more variation in the Predators themselves (or the “Yautja” as their race is known), as Prey featured a “Feral Predator” whose alien armor and technology were more rudimentary than his predecessors – closer to the pre-industrial weaponry of 18th-century warriors. Thanks to Prey, Predator was suddenly operating on fresh creative soil again, and Trachtenberg didn’t stop there.
2025 Has Been The Year of Predator
If you’re wondering what Dan Trachtenberg was up to between the time Prey was released and now, the answer is working on not one, but two, new pieces of Predator content for 2025. Back in the summer, Trachtenberg released a new Predator movie, Killer of Killers on Hulu. The project got overlooked by the wider circle of fans because it is the first animated film the franchise has released, and for some viewers, that format is a non-starter. However, for those who did tune in, Killer of Killers turned out to be a revelation, proving that Trachtenberg had taken the best lessons of Prey and run with them.
Predator: Killer of Killers built upon the foundation of Prey, while never losing the shared universe connective thread. Naru’s battle is revealed to be but one fought by many warriors throughout history. Over three story vignettes during Killer of Killers, we meet the ruthless Viking warrior and clan leader, Ursa; stoic ninja and master swordsman Kenji, and industrious and fearless pilot John J. Torres. The film smartly showcased each warrior in a story of battle with a unique Yautja, before pulling the final act twist of bringing them together on a Predator homeworld for a battle royale with the “Grendel King,” the seeming king of hunters amongst the Yautja.
However, what was more important was the storytelling detail Killer of Killers revealed: that the Yautja don’t just leave the warriors that beat them alone in peace; they abduct them and freeze them cryogenically (for centuries at a time in some cases) as prize warrior specimens, before thawing them out for big combat or hunting events to test the Yautja elite. Through a post-credits scene (that was later expanded), Killer of Killers revealed that Naru is still in stasis, as are Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch from the original Predator and Danny Glover’s Mike Harrigan from Predator 2. Ursa gave Torres and Kenji a chance to make a run for it, and start a revolt against the Yautja – with some of the best warriors throughout history frozen in wait to fight alongside them.
Forget all talk about the new Aliens vs. Predators crossover that’s taking shape; the Predator franchise currently has all the gas it needs to be an epic saga all its own. Now that Predator: Badlands is out and making waves, there’s even a Yautja ally (Dek) to help with the battle.
You can see Predator: Badlands in theaters, or stream other Predator franchise content on Disney+.
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