The Predator franchise is far from dead, and last year we learned it would be 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg who would be keeping it alive with a fifth movie. But details have remained scarce, other than rumors about an origin story plot and the possible casting of Amber Midthunder as the franchise’s first female lead. But now Collider has caught up with producers John Davis and John Fox who have revealed the film’s title, while also confirming story details including where it fits in the timeline.
Davis said the Predator 5 title is Skull, and is set during the Predator’s first hunting trip on Earth. He compared it to the classic first Predator film in terms of tone, while also name-checking The Revenant, suggesting the rumored Native American plot could be correct…
“It goes back to what made the original Predator movie work. It’s the ingenuity of a human being who won’t give up, who’s able to observe and interpret, basically being able to beat a stronger, more powerful, well-armed force,” Davis explained.
“It actually has more akin to The Revenant than it does any film in the Predator canon. You’ll know what I mean once you see it,” Fox added. “You can use your imagination. It is… early.”
While Davis didn’t mention Midthunder by name, he did reveal that a female protagonist will battle the Predator this time around, which should make for an interesting change from the series’ beginnings.
We may not have to wait long before we get a first look at Skull, either. Trachtenberg is reportedly deep into production, pretty wild considering how little we know about any of it. According to Davis, who says Trachtenberg is “probably three-quarters of the way through” production, planning on this film actually began during Shane Black’s The Predator, which explains why they’re so far along…
“Here is the interesting thing. We started conceiving this movie while we were shooting the last Predator movie. Dan came to me with a writer and an idea while we were shooting the movie. Emma Watts was really instrumental here. She said, ‘you know what, let’s go put this into development now and let’s push on this now. Let’s go for this now.’ We couldn’t be shooting one movie and prepping another, especially when one was the current-day end of the franchise and the other was the period beginning of the franchise. So it was always done with a lot of secrecy. It just continued to be something that’s going to be out there to surprise you.”
Getting me and other fans pumped for a new Predator film is easy, but Davis has kicked the hype into overdrive, putting Skull on equal footing to the original movie…
“…it’s going to be, I believe, the second best — or the first… or it may be equal to the first one. Right? I feel like the first one was a wonderful, interesting movie and I know what worked about it. I feel like we kind of never got back there again. We ended up in different places. I think this is a worthy complement to the first one. It’s going to be as good.“
