Could the Secret Predator Movie Reboot a Classic Sci-Fi Mashup?
Are we headed for a new grudge match?
The most derided mini sci-fi franchise of all time might be making a comeback. Following the success of Alien: Romulus this year, 20th Century Studios is feeling confident about not just a sequel to that film, but also more films in the Predator series, which eventually means that yes, another Alien vs. Predator could happen in the near future. But, Alien and Predator purists shouldn’t start freaking out just yet. It sounds like if we’re getting more AvP movies, this time things will be different.
In a massive new interview with Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios executive Steve Asbell has revealed several things about in-development sequels. A follow-up to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is expected in 2027, and he’s hopeful about a possible Speed 3. But for fans of Alien and Predator movies, there are a few key pieces of information to unpack, and it all may lead to new crossovers.
Two new Predator movies
Prey was a surprise hit on Hulu, leading to director Dan Trachtenberg scoring not one, but two sequels.
First, Asbell confirmed that Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Prey, is helming a new theatrical Predator movie called Badlands. Abel calls this movie “an absolutely bonkers idea,” and asserts that it’s “a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is.”
However, before Badlands, another, totally secret Predator movie, also directed by Trachtenberg, will be released “before the theatrical one.” This movie is so secret it doesn’t have a name, suggesting it will be direct-to-streaming.
AvP, reloaded?
A still from AVP: Alien vs. Predator.
In The Hollywood Reporter interview, the detail about the “secret” Predator movie leads to the revelation that Asbell thinks that 20th Century Studios will “probably” produce a new Alien vs. Predator movie at some point. Like the secret Predator movie, Asbell suggests that a new version of AvP will be different than what has come before, namely the two films from 2004 and 2007. Here’s what he said:
“It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine… perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”
Essentially, this is a nice way for Abel to say that whatever new AvP movie is created from the connections between the two rebooted franchises, this time it will be classy, rather than whatever he believes the perception is of the other two AvP movies is from the aughts.
But does this more prestige approach to a possible Alien vs. Predator reboot miss the point? While Alien: Romulus was certainly better than many other Alien spinoffs and sequels, it wasn’t all that original and was certainly less risky than Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus. The characters that fans have “fallen in love with” over the decades in these franchises have, in fairness, come and gone. Meaning that if you’re going to have Xenomorphs and Predators fight, nuance might not be the way to go.
For now, it’s unclear what will happen in either the Alien franchise or the Predator franchise, other than the simple fact that a lot more of it is coming, whether we’re ready for it or not.
