New Predator Movie Coming From Prey Director, And There's More In The Works

The "Predator" franchise is back and ready for more. After director Dan Trachtenberg rejuvenated the long-running series with "Prey," the thrilling and (mostly) standalone sequel that took the action back in time to colonial America and put a tribe of Comanche characters at the front and center of the story, 20th Century Studios is clearly taking the right lessons from the film's critical success. In an exciting development, The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Trachtenberg is returning to the director's chair for the next installment, currently titled "Badlands." And there was much rejoicing!

The mind reels at all the possibilities to take the franchise after "Prey" essentially took the property back to its roots with a stripped-down but no less thrilling take on the alien warriors with a thirst for the hunt. Intriguingly, this new film is described as not a direct sequel to "Prey," which many viewers expected after the artful end-credits sequence in "Prey" hinted at through cave drawings depicting the arrival of more Predator spaceships. Instead, the new storyline will apparently go in the opposite direction and take place "sometime in the future," though it will be taking a cues from the acclaimed acting turn by Amber Midthunder because the new film will star another female lead. As with "Prey," Trachtenberg will once again team up with writer Patrick Aison to pen the script.

But wait, there's more! THR also indicates that there will be even more "Predator" movies to come, as the studio is now gearing up for "a host of 'Predator' projects" with Trachtenberg creatively involved. 

It almost seemed like every single person who watched "Prey" understood just how significant of an addition the 2022 movie was to the franchise — everyone, that is, except the actual studio. 20th Century infamously relegated the period-piece thriller to a streaming release on Hulu, robbing audiences of what surely would've been an adrenaline-pumping experience on the big screen. We'll never know exactly how well the crowd-pleasing movie, made in the same vein as Dan Trachtenberg's brilliant "10 Cloverfield Lane," would've performed at the box office ... but it's easy to imagine that it would've been a smash hit. With the news that Trachtenberg impressed the higher-ups enough to be brought back for the next film, hopefully they'll learn from that mistake and give this new iteration the wide release it deserves. Unfortunately, the THR report doesn't indicate whether a theatrical release is in the offing or not.

Still, this is thrilling news for "Predator" fans, many of whom once thought the entire series had been left for dead after Shane Black's studio-meddled 2018 sequel "The Predator." Thankfully, "Prey" resurrected the IP and proved that there's plenty of untapped potential for stories set in various time periods and settings. There's always the risk that the studio could take things a little too far, of course, with today's news possibly suggesting a potential "Predator" cinematic universe of sorts. But we're choosing to be optimistic about the fact that Trachtenberg will now get the chance to pay off on the sequel ideas he once talked up.

Stay tuned to /Film for more details!