Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator Return: 3 Stories the Franchise Needs to Tell

Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming back to the Predator franchise, and it’s a pretty big deal. Actually, technically, he’s already back (sort of): Schwarzenegger’s character from Predator (1987), Dutch, was revealed to be a cryo-frozen prisoner of the Predator race, the Yautja, at the end of the anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers, alongside Danny Glover’s Dectective Mike Harrington from Predator 2 and Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) from Prey.

Predator franchise architect Dan Trachtenberg clearly has some kind of major crossover event in the works, one that won’t just be a retread of the Aliens vs. Predator films of the 2000s. But if the franchise is going to take time to refocus on some of its earliest heroes, then some important backfill pieces of lore need to be fit into place along the way. And when it comes to Schwarzenegger’s Dutch, three key story details absolutely need to be addressed.

3) What Happened After Predator?

In Predator (1987), Dutch Schaefer and his special ops team are attacked by a Yautja jungle hunter while on a covert mission for the CIA. The team was wiped out except for Dutch, who managed to turn the tables and kill the Yautja. The final scene of Predator saw Dutch flying away on a chopper, with Predator 2 making mention of the fact that the combat veteran informed the US government of the incident, which prompted an entire covert investigation of the Yautja.

In Prey and Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg has established that there is one Yautja clan, the Warlord’s Clan, which has gone rogue. The clan doubles back on planets where Yautja have died during the hunt, capturing and kidnapping the warriors that bested them, keeping them frozen in cryo-stasis, only to be awakened for special tournaments or events. So if Dutch is now a prisoner of the Warlord’s Clan, seemingly still close to the same age he was in Predator, we need to know how he got snatched. One has to imagine that Dutch was in a pretty paranoid and traumatized place after surviving his hunt and losing his team. Seems logical that he’d constantly be looking over his shoulder, so we definitely need to know how much trouble it really was (or not) for the Yautja to reacquire him.

2) How Long Has Dutch Been Frozen (and Has He Ever Been Thawed Before)?

Predator: Killer of Killers dropped a strong indication that the cryo-freezing process isn’t necessarily a one-and-done thing. Viking warrior Ursa sacrifices her own freedom to ensure her allies Kenji and Torres can escape the Warlord Clan’s leader, the Grendel King. The Yautja don’t kill Ursa, however; they return her to cryo-sleep to be thawed out again at another time. That’s a major detail to note, as it implies the Warlord’s Clan values these stolen warriors as prizes, not throwaway kills.

Ursa was from the year 841, the oldest known warrior in the Grendel King’s collection (so far). If she is being held with Dutch and Harrington, who are from the 1980s and 1990s, respectively, then clearly this has been an operation the Yautja have been running for centuries. We still have no idea when the finale battle of Killer of Killers takes place (presumably in the future), but if Dutch has been there for decades, there’s a chance he, too, was once thawed out for some kind of tournament or hunt.

We saw the Grendel King take three warriors from very different time periods and make them fight together; a story of Dutch being partnered with other survivors (Harrington, Naru, or other returning characters) for a tournament would be the kind of story fans would love to see done in the animated style of Killer of Killers, and one that Schwarzenegger and Glover could easily pull off through vocal performance.

1) Where Is This All Headed?

The Predator franchise is hot right now, thanks to Trachtenberg, but where is it all heading? That’s the million-dollar question that needs to be answered, sooner before later.

Aliens vs. Predator is still a thing that we expect to see: the current franchise storyline has created potential for opposing clans of Yautja, an eclectic collection of frozen survivors, an infestation of xenomorphs, and all the technological resources of the Weyland-Yutani corporation to all be thrown together into a massive free-for-all battle, on an alien world. That would be an event film worthy of rivaling Marvel and DC, but it’s certainly not the only option.

Killer of Killers has given the Predator franchise a whole new lane to play in. The film was both an anthology of different Yautja hunts on Earth over different centuries, as well as a crossover between the three different stories, when the three human warriors are thrown together into a major battle royale. That’s a formula (animated anthology into a crossover event) that could be easily replicated, with any number of former Predator franchise actors (Schwarzenegger, Glover, Adrian Brody, Boyd Holbrook, etc.) returning in animated form through vocal performances.

Then there’s the fact that the Predator franchise has gotten big enough to stand on its own. A Predator event film about a big hunt event, or some story of the cryo-frozen prisoners breaking loose, would be fitting for the franchise. Of course, trying to get Schwarzenegger, Glover, or other aging actors to look like their younger selves would also be the most expensive undertaking, visually. But, if Trachtenberg were to pull it off, it would arguably be the best bet for a major theatrical “event” that breaks the box office. Terminator has been milking the image of a younger Schwarzenegger for face-swapping and de-aging sequences for years; even Alien at one point planned to de-age Sigourney Weaver for Ripley’s return in the Alien 5 film that never happened. It can be done.

How would you like to see Arnold Schwarzenegger return in the Predator franchise? Leave a comment or join us over on the ComicBook Forum!

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