Predator: Top of the Food Chain
The franchise is having a renaissance
Lukewarm take: Predator (1987) is one of the greatest science fiction action thrillers of all time. I hold it in the same esteem as other science fiction action thrillers from the 1980s like Aliens, RoboCop, and The Terminator.
The original film starred Arnold Schwarzenegger at the peak of his powers as he played the leader of a team of uber badasses fighting a nigh unstoppable extraterrestrial big game hunter on safari on Earth. This movie really has it all. The cast is excellent (Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Shane Black, Bill Duke, and more along with Arnold). It was directed by action maestro John McTiernan (Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October). It has a sharp script written by Jim and John Thomas that was punched up by Shane Black. It also has one of the most iconic monsters of all time designed by the legendary Stan Winston. It should come as no surprise that it was a massive hit (making $98.3 million at the box office on an $18 million budget). That success led to the 1990s being inundated with Predator media. Predator 2 hit theaters in 1990, and there were heaps of Predator comic books, novels, video games, and action figures. As a kid growing up in the 1990s, I gobbled up all of it. I read the comics, collected the action figures, read the books, and played the video games.
It ruled. I think a lot of people in my generation became Predator fans for life because of all of media that supplemented the movies during that time period. As the decade came to an end, so did the amount of quality Predator media. The Alien vs. Predator movies had some box office success in the 2000s, but they were not able to generate the same kind of widespread popular interest that we saw in the 1990s. Predators was a solid entry in the series in 2010, but it had only modest box office success. When the almost universally reviled The Predator flopped in 2018, it felt like the franchise was effectively dead. Then along came Prey.
Prey (2022) was the shot in the arm the franchise needed. It was the first Predator movie to be released since 20th Century Fox was acquired by Disney, and it seemed clear that the new custodians of the franchise had no idea what to do with it. It was released directly to Hulu instead of getting a theatrical release, and it felt like Disney thought it would fade away there. That is not at all what happened. Prey garnered both critical and fan acclaim as it did something that fans of the franchise had been clamoring for for years. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, the movie follows the same story structure of the first two films: the extraterrestrial big game hunter comes to Earth to test itself by hunting some of the planet’s most formidable warriors. Where this film differs from the previous two is the time period it takes place. Instead of taking on modern day people, this film sees the creature Comanche warriors and French settlers in the Northern Great Plains in 1719. The hero of this story is a Comanche woman played by Amber Midthunder who absolutely steals the show in a way no actor has in this series since Arnold Schwarzenegger. I love this movie, and so do many others. The response was so strong that it led to a sequel being greenlit and likely convinced Disney to release Alien: Romulus in theaters instead of releasing it direct to Hulu.
When Disney acquired the rights to the Predator franchise, it meant that the comic book rights moved from Dark Horse to Marvel. A brand new Predator series from Ed Brisson and Kev Walker made its debut a week after the release of Prey, and it marked the first of many new comics published under Marvel’s new 20th Century Studios imprint starring the extraterrestrial hunters. What followed were three crossover titles featuring Marvel superheroes written by Ben Percy: Predator vs. Wolverine (2023), Predator vs. Black Panther (2024), and Predator vs. Spider-Man (2025). Of the three, Predator vs. Spider-Man (with art by Marcelo Ferreira) has been my favorite. It’s shockingly violent for a Spider-Man comic, but it still feels true to both characters. Also, Kraven the Hunter is in it because of course he is.
The most recent entry in the Predator franchise is an animated anthology film called Predator: Killer of Killers that just released on Hulu over the weekend. It is directed by Prey director Dan Trachtenberg, and it follows three different warriors from three different time periods who had to deal with these fearsome aliens. The first story follows a Viking warrior in 841 named Ursa (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy. The second story is about a pair of brothers named Kenji and Kiyoshi (both voiced by Louis Ozawa) in Japan in 1609. The third story is about a World War II fighter pilot named Torres (voiced by Rick Gonzalez) who engages in a dogfight with his technologically advanced counterpart. That third story also features a character voiced by Michael Biehn who now joins an exclusive fraternity that includes only Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen (if you know, you know). It’s a very fun little anthology that helps flesh out the universe where these creatures exist.
As if 2025 hasn’t been momentous enough for the Predator franchise, another live action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg called Predator: Badlands is set to hit cinemas this November. On top of that, a new comic from Ben Percy and Marcelo Ferreira called Predator Kills the Marvel Universe hits comic book stores this August. It feels like we may have entered a new Golden Age for the Predator franchise. Hopefully it stays that way.