It was in November last year thatPredatorfans discovered a new sequel was secretly in the works, and it now looks likeDisney’s Predator Rebootwill be making its debut on Hulu. The news comes on the back of legal documents regarding the rights for the upcoming movie which state that Hulu will be distributing the movie, which in turn would appear to confirm that it will be a Hulu exclusive when it is finally released.
Originally under the working title of “Skulls”, the plan bydirector Dan Trachtenberg, who is no stranger to secret projects after his devious delivery of10 Cloverfield Lane, was to keep the fact he was working on aPredatorsequel out of public knowledge until the movie was complete. Like his release of theCloverfieldsequels, which arrived on the back of only one vague trailer, Trachtenberg revealed last year on his Twitter account that he had been planning something similar before the gig was rumbled.
In his post back in November, he said, “This was meant to be a surprise. Been working on this for almost 4 years now. It’s very sad that what we had in store for how you could discover this movie will no longer happen. It’s a bummer. But also…YAY!”
Trachtenberg had been working on the film from a Patrick Aison script, but was forced to confirm that “Skulls” was in fact his disguise forPredator 5to avoid the kind of attention that an announcement of a new installment of the franchise progressing would obviously bring. With the expectation now that the newPredatormovie will go toHulu, it seems that the plan was probably to drop the movie in the same wayThe Cloverfield Paradoxarrived without warning on Netflix the same day as its first trailer arrived.
Despite the surprise being blown, fans of thePredatorseries were happy to know that their favorite pug-ugly aliens were returning for another outing, but may be a little disappointed at it not hitting the big screen. On the other hand, 2018’sThe Predator, the last film released in the franchise, was not exactly the successful reboot of the series everyone involved hoped it to be. In fact, as a series, everything since the originalPredatorback in 1987, has been anything but a success with critics while only making moderate gains at the box office. It would make you question whether there is any mileage left in it.
In February, there was a supposed synopsis released forPredator 5, which detailed thestory of Kee, a Comanche womanwho fights for her tribe - presumably against attack from a Predator - despite their established gender norms forbidding her from being tribe leader. The synopsis was never officially confirmed, and there are some who would say that it seems a bit of a labored and unnecessary equality message led story when all people want to see is the kind of raw, tense action movie that made the original such a hit. But perhaps that is just too much to ask for these days.
