Predator Director Teases How the Franchise Is Building Toward Its Avengers Moment (Exclusive)

Since 2022’s Prey was released, filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg has made it clear that he has a lot of respect for the larger Predator franchise. That film not only colored in details of lore from the series that was rooted in thirty-year-old Easter eggs, but set the stage for him to do even bigger things with the series. Since then, the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers made it clear that there’s an endgame in mind for the series, as it tied together not only Naru from Prey, but also Danny Glover’s Mike Harrigan from Predator 2 and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch Schaefer from the original Predator; and it’s not stopping there.

The upcoming Predator: Badlands is a distinct departure from the other two films that Trachtenberg has delivered. In the movie, a human fighting for survival against a lone alien hunter is not the focus; instead, a Predator is the lead character, and he must fight his way against the elements and prove himself worthy. Ahead of the movie’s release, it’s been clear that connectivity between the Predator and the Alien franchise is being reignited in the wings, as connections between the two were revealed in the trailer, but it has us wondering: what’s the endgame? Luckily, Dan Trachtenberg has an answer.

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Speaking with ComicBook for the Predator: Badlands junket, we asked Dan Trachtenberg that very question: What’s the endgame with all these connections you’re building into the franchise? His answer, of course, referenced the MCU, and in a way that should make it all clear for fans.

“In my mind, what made Avengers work was that it wasn’t the first MCU movie and it wasn’t the second MCU movie,” the director said. “That we had spent time bonding with characters and their individual stories and making sure that those individual movies were cool and had interesting premises unto themselves. So if we were to ever do something where things collide, it would be after we’ve gotten to know and bonded with things in their own individual stories.”

When asked how he responds to fans calling him the “Kevin Feige” of the Predator franchise, Trachtenberg had another great reply: “I take that as a compliment because I think Kevin Feige is a genius and what he created is unprecedented in the history of cinema. I’ve just made a couple of good Predator movies so far, and hoping for a third. So yeah, we’ll see how that turns out.”

The success of Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and the hype surrounding Predator: Badlands have the franchise in the best place it has ever been. Despite multiple films released over the years, the series has long been one with mostly cult appeal and little mainstream crossover. Should the series continue to build on itself like this and continue to be well received by fans (signs point to that being the case so far), it could be the next big sci-fi franchise in Hollywood.

Predator: Badlands arrives in theaters this Friday.