Predator: Killer of Killers gives Arnold Schwarzenegger a perfect path to return

Dan Trachtenberg and Joshua Wassung’s animated movie Predator: Killer of Killers introduces many new elements to the decades-old science fiction franchise, just like Trachtenberg’s Prey did back in 2022. There are dramatic new Predator designs and places Predator-vs.-human fights in eras where we’ve never seen them before. Most startlingly, it brings in some inspiration from Christopher Guest’s dog-pageant comedy Best In Show.

But for Predator fans, the real revelation comes right at the end of the story, with a final reveal that opens up all kinds of Predator sequel possibilities. For one, it suggests a perfect return path for Dutch, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character from the 1987 movie that kicked off the entire series.

Obviously, we had to ask Trachtenberg whether he’s planning a Killer of Killers sequel, whether he wants to see Dutch back in action, and more questions about that big reveal. Just as obviously, we had to put his answers after a spoiler break.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead about one small detail from the end of Predator: Killer of Killers.]

In the movie, three humans from far-flung eras — a Viking raider, a Japanese ninja, and a World War II pilot — each face a Predator… and survive. All three are then captured and cryogenically preserved by other Predators, who eventually thaw them out, dump them in an arena with explosive collars around their necks, and order them to fight to the death. The survivor is expected to face a massive leader credited as “Warlord Predator.”

The end of the film spends a few short moments traveling through a facility where other captives are being kept on ice. including Naru, Amber Midthunder’s protagonist from Prey. The implication is that anyone who kills a Predator is collected for further battles — a huge change to existing Predator lore, and also a major opportunity for Trachtenberg, Wassung, and anyone else playing around in this canon to bring back any Predator-movie survivor, including Dutch.

“So the movie was made under the code name Warehouse, as that end moment was in the original idea pitch to the studio, and it felt like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Trachtenberg told Polygon in a video interview. “Certainly Arnold, like many others, was a survivor of his story, and one could easily imagine him up there in cryo, along with any other Earth champion or champion from other planets.”

Sure, one could imagine that, just as one could imagine the 77-year-old Schwarzenegger voicing an animated version of Dutch who’s fresh from the fight in the 1987 movie, instead of getting called back into battle as a septuagenarian. The animation medium and the cryo-storage facility both seem like a perfect way to bring back old characters without considering the actors’ ages, or their ability to perform the kinds of acrobatic, dramatic action sequences seen throughout Killer of Killers.

But the actual question is whether Trachtenberg himself is actively planning a sequel. His response? “Yeah, certainly. The cool [part] of this movie is that it opens up the door to tell these kinds of stories in different eras, in different places, in different planets — but also, the further adventures of these heroes that we bonded with in a very unique way.”

But he wouldn’t confirm or deny whether he or 20th Century Studios have reached out to Schwarzenegger about the possibility. For one thing, the actor has repeatedly turned down chances to return to the role of Dutch. According to Den of Geek, talks to feature him in 1990’s Predator 2 fell apart over money, with the added factor that James Cameron wanted to preserve Schwarzenegger’s sequel mystique for Terminator 2. The actor turned down a cameo in 2010’s Predators because he was serving as governor of California at the time, and rejected a cameo in 2018’s The Predator because he didn’t like the script or the minor role. So his possible involvement in a Killer of Killers sequel might depend on a lot of factors besides Trachtenberg’s interest, or fans’ fantasies about seeing Dutch in action again.

For the moment, Trachtenberg says it’s true that his Predator projects — including the live-action movie Predator: Badlands, coming to theaters in November — may suggest the possibility of sequel stories, even before any follow-up projects have been green-lit. He points to the closing credits of Prey, where a single animated frame foreshadows a battle to come, as a group of Predator ships emerge from the clouds above Naru’s village.

When Prey came out, that shot felt like a promise that Prey 2 was on the way. Now, it looks like a teaser for Killer of Killers, with the understanding that those ships were arriving to abduct Naru. In the same way, that final shot of her in Killer of Killers could tease a future animated or live-action animated story with her. But Trachtenberg says he can’t plan around sequel projects just yet.

“Certainly [each of my movies] are being made as if this was my only shot,” Trachtenberg told Polygon. “Everything was thrown into it. Should we be able to do more… Certainly Killer of Killers seizes something, and Badlands [does too]. Hopefully there will be something more, but they don’t rely on the something more. Hopefully they are both cool within their own merits.”

Predator: Killer of Killers is on Hulu now.