It’s Too Soon for Another Predator and Alien Crossover

It’s a good time to be a big-screen monster. Legendary’s MonsterVerse never fails to dominate the box office with its various entries that focus on kaiju like Godzilla and King Kong, while Universal is once again trying its hand at building a franchise around its horror icons. Two other properties, Predator and Alien, are also working hard to correct their images, with a sequel to Alien: Romulus in the works and two Predator movies set to release in 2025. Things are going so well, in fact, that there’s a major Alien reference in the trailer for Predator: Badlands, teasing another crossover for the two galactic franchises.

Unfortunately, while the confirmation that Xenomorphs are roaming the same universe as Badlands‘ protagonist, Dek, is sure to excite some, it’s a bad omen. Neither Predator nor Alien has done enough legwork to earn a crossover, and if the powers that be go through with it before the time is right, the outcome is unlikely to be any better than the Alien vs. Predator movies.

The Alien vs. Predator Movies Are Products of Their Time

The Alien vs. Predator franchise dates back to the late ’80s when Dark Horse Comics wanted to capitalize on the success of the alien killers. Eventually, a movie script started floating around, but the project didn’t really start gaining steam until the early 2000s. At the time, action movies were all the rage, with franchises like Underworld and Resident Evil raking in big bucks at the box office. Paul W. S. Anderson was recruited to get Alien vs. Predator to the finish line, and while he delivered a movie that saw a Yautja fight a Xenomoprh, there wasn’t much depth beyond that.

Alien vs. Predator earned enough money to warrant a sequel, which added the subtitle Requiem. Sadly, it was more of the same, with audiences and critics alike realizing neither franchise had enough meat on the bone to make a big-screen crossover project feel worthwhile. An underlying issue that plagued both movies was the lack of an interesting story. There were plenty of human characters that reacted to the horrors going on around them, but they weren’t anything to write home about, leaving the action to do all the heavy lifting.

A quick look at the recent Predator and Alien installments, which put an emphasis on creating fleshed-out human characters, should cast doubt on another Alien vs. Predator situation occurring. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Alien and Predator Need More Wins Before They Cross Paths Again

The past couple of years have been huge for Alien and Predator. 2022’s Prey proved that Dan Trachtenberg and Co. have a clear understanding of the Yautja and what makes them so interesting. Meanwhile, in 2024, Fede Álvarez took the franchise that Ridley Scott built back to its roots with Alien: Romulus, which laid the groundwork for a pulse-pounding sequel. Following the trailer for Predator: Badlands, though, which features Elle Fanning as a Weyland-Yutani android, it feels like all that groundwork is going to end up falling by the wayside.

Sure, there’s a chance that the Weyland-Yutani android is the only reference to Alien in Baldands. Trachtenberg could just be paying homage to another ’80s horror franchise and not looking to build up to a crossover. However, in the age of cinematic universes, every Easter egg is the end-all be-all, and with the history that Alien and Predator share, it’s impossible to ignore such an overt connection. Fortunately, there’s still hope that the whole thing goes off without a hitch.

Noah Hawley of Fargo fame is preparing to drop the live-action TV series Alien: Earth, while Trachtenberg will show off his animated anthology movie Predator: Killer of Killers a few months before Badlands‘ release date. If both projects serve as great supplemental material ahead of their respective franchises’ next big-screen entries, the door could open itself enough where the idea of another Alien vs. Predator movie doesn’t seem so scary.

Predator: Badlands hits theaters on November 7, 2025.

Do you think it’s too early for another Alien vs. Predator movie? What would you like to see if the two franchises do cross over again? Let us know in the comments below!