The Predator and Alien sagas have been going from strength to strength over the last few years. There were initially concerns about these R-rated franchises when Disney purchased Fox, but those fears have proved unfounded. The House of Mouse hired Dan Trachtenberg to run the Predator stories, and he’s proven to be a genius at realizing their potential. We’ve had two blockbuster hits – Prey and Predator: Badlands – that tell stories very different to any we’ve seen before. They’ve been complemented by Predator: Killer of Killers, an animated anthology that came to a cliffhanger ending.
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Trachtenberg has signed a three-year deal with Paramount, which has led to yet more concerns about the future of the Yautja. Fortunately, we now know those too are unfounded, because there are still so many ideas in the works right now. Here’s everything we know about Predator‘s future now Badlands is coming to Disney+.
Dan Trachtenberg Still Plans On Making More Predator Movies
To be fair to Trachtenberg, he’s been quite open about his desire to tell stories that don’t feature Yautja. “I want to make movies that don’t always have Predators in them,” he quipped to Screen Rant back in November last year. The Paramount deal opens up so many doors for Trachtenberg, including other epic franchises like Star Trek, so it’s easy to see why he was won over by the other studio. But Trachtenberg has assured viewers he’s still involved with Predator; “I am simultaneously figuring out all of the next steps for the Predator franchise,” he’s confirmed.
Trachtenberg has already confirmed he has a third Predator idea in the works, something he found so exciting he actually rushed Killer of Killers and Badlands. “After Prey came out, and I started thinking about sequel stuff, there were three ideas that I had. Killers is one, Badlands is two and the third one is something else,” he told SFX Magazine in June 2025. “The reason why I felt possessed to make them and sort of why I rushed – I did two at once because I could do, I could multitask with animation – was because I was so eager to get to the third thing.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Had Discussions About Returning As Dutch
We don’t really know what else Trachtenberg has in the works. What we do know is that the original Predator star could be back; Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has had talks about a Predator return. “I met Arnold,” Trachtenberg revealed, “and he said, ‘You’d think I get, ‘l’ll be back,’ yelled at me most, but it’s actually, ‘Get to the chopper!’ So, he’s well aware of the franchise’s staying power. He was excited to talk about what else we could do.” The end of Predator: Killer of Killers set this up, revealing his character Dutch was taken by the Yautja for future contests.
Predator is clearly evolving in a transmedia franchise, so we don’t know what form that will take. As thrilling as it is to imagine Schwarzenegger back on the big screen going up against armies of Yautja, animation is a medium with unlimited potential for the action genre. As Schwarzenegger has repeatedly commented, “Action heroes don’t retire. They just reload.”
Will There Be A 3rd Alien vs. Predator Movie?
The Predator franchise has long been tied to the Aliens, most notably in two crossover Alien vs. Predator movies. With both sagas experiencing a resurgence under Disney, we increasingly seem to be moving towards another epic versus match between the Yautja and the Xenomorphs. Most notably, Predator: Badlands made their coexistence a major story point for the first time in the character of Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth. It officially means Weyland-Yutani is now part of both the Predator and Alien timelines.
Both Trachtenberg and Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez have talked about wanting to do more than just an action figure mash-up. Speaking to Collider, Álvarez revealed he’d like to do it as a surprise:
“The way I would do it, most likely, if it could be done this way… It’s harder to keep secrets online… The best AVP will be the one that you don’t know is AVP until the other guy shows up. You think you’re watching a Predator movie, and then they land in some place and there are creatures, and ****ing hell, it’s a Xenomorph. That would get me. ‘**** yeah!’ You’d go crazy. Or vice versa, you’re in an Alien movie, and then suddenly a mysterious creature is there, and you can hear that sound, and you see the cloak, and you go, ‘Is that a ****ing Predator?’ And then turns out it is. That would be the way to do it, don’t you think? Once you put it in the title, it’s like, ‘Spoiler alert.’”
What’s Going On With Prey 2?
Prey star Amber Midthunder is keen to return to the Predator franchise, and that too was set up at the end of Killer of Killers. Prey 2 was less of a priority than Badlands simply because Trachtenberg was more interested in trying big swings and creative ideas rather than sequels. Badlands producer Ben Rosenblatt told Screen Rant a sequel isn’t ruled out, but “You could have done a Prey where it’s, ‘Okay, here’s a different time period.’ But I think for us, we were like, ‘How do we move things forward?”
A Predator: Killer of Killers Sequel Hasn’t Been Confirmed
Predator: Killer of Killers may have ended with a spectacular cliffhanger, but there’s no news about when or if it will return for a second season or a sequel series. Trachtenberg seems reluctant to simply do more of the same, so it presumably wasn’t a priority. That said, the potential is still there, and we can only hope Predator embraces it.
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