'Predator' Director Explains the Origins of the Fearsome Ultimate Predator
If it bleeds, you can kill it, but good luck trying. In the upcoming movie The Predator from director Shane Black (who had a minor role in the 1987 original Predator), a souped-up “Ultimate Predator” wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting suburban town. In a new interview, Black reveals the origins of the Ultimate Predator, which is an amalgam of the best warriors from a plethora of alien species.
On Wednesday, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly ahead of San Diego Comic-Con, Black unpacked the Ultimate Predator’s origins, explaining that it has a “collection” of traits from the universe’s most powerful species that the Predator race has encountered. The result is a stronger, fast, smarter Predator than ever seen before in the franchise.
“If the predator was to be an amalgam of, not just an ordinary predator, but also a collection of traits garnered from the various most powerful species that they’ve hunted, then you basically would have one that is stronger, faster, and smarter,” Black says. “We finally got an image that we liked, which captures this very canny, very cunning, and effortlessly powerful, savage predator.”
One of Black’s “quibbles” to the series has been that past Predators have looked “big, bulky” like a football player in full uniform. “I wanted a certain more graceful, more light, more athletic quality, literally like a predator.”
A Predator warrior (but not THE Ultimate Predator) in Shane Black's 'The Predator' (2018).
“If you watch a cheetah, it’s not clunky,” he added.
Throughout the film franchise, spanning 1987’s Predator to the Alien vs. Predator spin-offs to 2010’s Predators, there have been multiple variations on the Predator villain, all varying in size and abilities. The “Ultimate Predator”, as teased in the trailers for The Predator, is the most intimidating yet, showing itself impervious to conventional firepower and making quick work of highly-trained soldiers and mercenaries. As it stands, Earth is in deep shit when the Ultimate Predator rolls into town.
The Predator will be released in theaters on September 14.
