SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Predator: Killer Of Killers. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
Since the launch of the franchise in 1987, the various Predator movies have principally operated independently. They have all had different settings and different characters, with the one thing tying them together being humans going up against a Yautja (the in-universe name for the Predator species). What’s particularly special about the new animated feature Predator: Killer Of Killers, however, is that it successfully changes the formula – and its central idea is one that could end up having a massive impact on the future of the canon.
Hulu subscribers), it’s revealed that humans who successfully manage to defeat Predators aren’t simply left to go about the rest of their lives; instead, they are abducted by the Yautja, brought to the alien species’ home planet, and kept in a kind of stasis until they are called upon to participate in a kind of champions tournament. It’s a massive idea that changes the way that audiences look at the aftermath of all the previous movies, and Dan Trachtenberg explained to me in an interview last week that it was the idea that made Predator: Killer Of Killers a story he wanted to tell. Said the filmmaker,
Naru – the protagonist from Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey played by Amber Midthunder.
It was previously thought that Naru might have a very limited role to play in the grander Predator franchise due to the fact that Prey is set in 1719 – centuries before the events of all of the other canon features – but the new film totally changes the equation. We don’t have any specific clue as to how long the Yautja keep champions in stasis, but it can clearly be for a long, long time, as demonstrated in the fact that the three protagonists from Predator: Killer Of Killers are all from very different time periods in world history.
The table is clearly now set for Naru’s return… but what about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch from Predator? Or Danny Glover’s Mike Harrigan from Predator 2? Or Adrien Brody’s Royce and Alice Braga’s Isabelle from Predators? Or Boyd Holbrook’s Quinn from The Predator? The door is wide open now, and I’m thrilled about the idea of the franchise walking through in the coming years.
At present, we don’t know precisely how the Predator will dip back into the continuity’s past, but we won’t have to wait for the next installment generally speaking, as the next film in the canon is now just months away. Providing a whole new angle for the franchise by featuring a Yautja protagonist (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), Predator: Badlands is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 7 – and after the extreme badassness of Predator: Killer Of Killers, I am even more hyped than before.