Predator is getting yet another reboot that will thankfully ignore the last awful movie

When Disney acquired 20^th Century Fox last year, it grabbed a number of excellent sci-fi franchises in the deal such as Alien, Avatar, and Predator. Outside of Avatar though, we haven’t received too many plans about what Disney was planning to do with these other iconic franchises, which also don’t exactly suit Disney’s traditional family-friendly flavour of storytelling.

For Predator in particular, things were looking particularly grim following the 2018 reboot of the franchise by Shane Black. Underwhelming would be an understatement, and box office results reflected the tepid response to this take in the series that tried to breathe new life into a franchise that should’ve probably died when Arnold Schwarzenegger got the better of the intergalactic hunter back in 1987.  It was thought/hoped that Disney might use the acquisition as an opportunity to let the franchise rest allow us to forget about it for a while.  

It appears though that this will not be the case, as Deadline has reported that a new Predator movie reboot will be coming our way from the house of mouse, with 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg set to direct the fifth film in the franchise. If we ignore those awful AvP films.  

Disney appears to not be too worried about the franchise’s recent failures and is ready to give Predator yet another chance to make some money.  To be fair, Disney does have a pretty good track record with its numerous franchises. The new film – which is being written by Patrick Aison (Jack Ryan) will reportedly not be building off the previous movie, but will serve as a reboot of sorts, taking the franchise in a different direction that explores different time periods and man’s interactions with the mysterious alien hunters during that time.

That’s the hot take from AVP Galaxy, who claims Predator 5 will be set in the past, long before settlers stole Native Americans’ land. It seems that Predator 5 may also be going under the working title “Skulls” which is said to follow “a Comanche woman who goes against gender norms and traditions to become a warrior.” It sounds like a fishy rumour, but considering that Skulls was being written by Aison, it could possibly turn out to be a connection with some validity.

Whatever happens to the franchise though, it does certainly need a new approach to bring in audiences once again. If Disney can keep the film’s mature horror roots though and not give us a toned-down take on the franchise, the Predator may live once more. That and parents will all be buying their kids’ cute Predator dolls for Christmas, because Disney never turns down a chance to land a merchandising deal.

Last Updated: November 23, 2020