Predator: Killer of Killers Proves What the Franchise Should Have Been Doing All Along

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Predator: Killer of Killers.

2025 is a big year for the Predator franchise. Director Dan Trachtenberg of 10 Cloverfield Lane and Prey fame is back with two new Predator films, those being Predator: Badlands and Predator: Killer of Killers, with the latter now available on Hulu. The animated anthology features three short stories of Predators encountering human warriors from various time periods, those being Vikings, samurai, and World War II pilots. The three stories then converge for a fourth act finale on an alien world, where the human characters team up to try to survive. As a standalone movie, it’s quite enjoyable if somewhat slight. But as a proof of concept for what the Predator franchise could become – Predators being dropped into all sorts of random historical settings – it’s what the long-running series has needed for quite some time.

Let’s take a look at how Predator: Killer of Killers sets up what the Predator franchise should have been doing all along.

The Predator: A Disruptive Force

The original Predator from 1987 is not just a remarkably well-made action movie, it was also fairly subversive at the time. In a decade of horror films marked by the progeny of 1974’s Black Christmas and 1978’s Halloween, slashers became one of the go-to molds for genre fare. Unstoppable antagonists terrorizing helpless teenagers or twentysomethings was what audiences expected from this type of story. Yet along comes John McTiernan’s Predator, which presents itself as a gung-ho, commando/jungle action vehicle that bleeds testosterone and stars a group of character actors, only for their “mission gone wrong” plotline to go really wrong with the arrival of an alien trophy hunter who tears through them one by one.

We’re not the first to make the connection between Predator and old-school slashers, but it speaks to what the Predator as an antagonist has been since its inception: a disruptive force, one who breaks into a story it’s not built for and changes all the rules. In any typical war action movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch and his companions would be more in control of the situation, and go out heroically if they had to. But the Predator is a cut above (ha) their league, throwing these muscle men into the meat grinder. It’s only when Dutch starts using his brain over his brawn that he finds a way to outfight the Predator, and he still only barely survives the movie. It still stands as one of the best action films of that decade, and gave McTiernan the platform to follow it up with other classics like Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October.

But the obligatory Predator sequels didn’t do much to add to the power of the original concept. 1990’s Predator 2 and 2010’s Predators are both perfectly entertaining action films, but neither one really develops the “disruptive” idea that’s intrinsic to the Predator’s DNA. A Predator crashing the urban jungle of Los Angeles is a very “sequel-y” concept, giving the production a safe quality that prevents it from living up to the original. Likewise, Predators reuses the jungle motif but on an alien world where the Predators drop humans to hunt, which is yet another safe sci-fi premise. And despite coming from talented writer-director Shane Black of Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3 fame, 2018’s The Predator is a hodge-podge of potentially interesting ideas that are turned into bland soup by jamming them all together. (And no, we’re not counting the Alien vs. Predator films as part of this conversation.)

So how does Killer of Killers help turn things around? Well, it all starts with Trachtenberg, who also directed the previous movie in the series.

The Future of the Franchise

It’s a shame how long it took, but 2022’s Prey is the movie that finally set the Predator franchise back on the right path. It’s strange that “the Predator arrives in 1719 North America and battles a Comanche hunter” is the first premise that feels like a proper sequel to the original film, but better late than never we suppose. Killer of Killers builds on the historical warrior angle with three new time periods, those being Viking age Scandinavia, feudal Japan, and a WWII naval battle. Although the anthology structure means that none of the settings get as much development as they could (really, any of these pitches could have been their own film), it’s at least a step in the right direction because Killer of Killers remembers what the Predator was originally supposed to be: an incursion into a story that’s not about Predators.

The Viking story is about an older female warrior on a quest for revenge alongside her son. The Japan story is about two brothers, one a ninja and the other a samurai, who are battling over their father’s legacy. And the WWII story is about a young mechanic/wannabe pilot who wants to prove himself in aerial combat. These stories all exist independently of alien influence, much in the same way that Prey’s protagonist Naru (Amber Midthunder) wanting to be a hunter instead of a healer and setting out to break the traditions of her tribe didn’t necessitate an alien monster being the catalyst for proving her bonafides. Under Trachtenberg’s guidance, the franchise has reclaimed what made Predator unique among every other sci-fi monster series.

That’s not to say we’re not excited for the more futuristic-flavored Predator: Badlands, set to arrive later this year, especially since there are hints that the movie may be setting up a new (and hopefully better) Alien vs. Predator crossover. But watching Killer of Killers’ commendable visual storytelling, smart use of setting, and agreeably gory action whets the appetite for future Predator features that show the creature barging into all sorts of historical events. If 20th Century Studios wants this franchise to be as long-running as possible, they’d be smart to see Killer of Killers as a stepping stone for a myriad of possible premises.

Seriously Disney, where’s my Predator Western?

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.