We Heard a Juicy Rumor About That Secret Predator Movie

In 2025, we’re going to see the Predator in more ways than we can possibly imagine. The biggest, of course, is in Predator: Badlands, the live-action film starring Elle Fanning and directed by Prey helmer Dan Trachtenberg. Then, earlier this week, the president of Fox let it spill that there’s a second Predator film coming out in 2025 also directed by Trachtenberg, but wouldn’t give any more details. Now, we might just know what it is.

Multiple sources told io9 that the secret Predator project is in fact an animated feature, as many speculated. The twist though is it’s almost an anthology, telling three separate stories of Predators fighting warriors in multiple eras. One is potentially pirates, one is potentially samurai, and there’s a third one too. io9 reached out to Disney for comment on this but had not heard back as of publication.

So, though we’re confident in our sources, we still have to consider this a rumor. However, it does line up with everything we heard about the project in the Hollywood Reporter’s interview with 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbel. He said Trachtenberg pitched Fox “a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool.” This would be that. Plus, he specifically referred to as Badlands as “the live-action Predator film,” certainly hinting towards something not live-action for Trachtenberg’s second new Predator project.

To be fair though, there are still multiple questions here. First and foremost, where and when would this film be released? It is direct to Hulu? Limited theatrical? Also, if it’s animated, who is doing the animation? And finally, how (or will) these stories fit into the now burgeoning mythology the Predator movies are creating? Our sources didn’t provide any of that information.

Moving over to absolute pure speculation, I’d love this movie to be like 2021’s underrated The Spine of Night. That film, from director Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, was a hard R-rated fantasy epic told with rotoscope animation style that gave the film a really gritty and dated, but also pleasing look. In my review, I described it as a “Frank Frazetta painting come to life, through the filters of Ralph Bakshi, Heavy Metal, and Dragon’s Lair.” Imagine a Predator movie that looks like that!

So, in 2025, we’ll definitely be seeing a Predator showdown with Elle Fanning on the big screen in live action—and we probably will be seeing them battle across the eras in animation too. That’s exciting news no matter what.

What eras do you want to see the Predator in? Would you go to the theater to see this? Discuss below.

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