Despite waning box office receipts, the studio behind the Predator series are delivering us a fifth movie in the long running franchise. While few details have been known up until this point, it was initially thought that this would be another sequel that would pick up after The Predator. New details released today say different. The newest movie will actually serve as a prequel that will go back to their first visit to earth. The movie which is tentatively titled Skull will go back to a much earlier time, showing us the aliens coming face to face with humans in long before the events of the first film. But no real time frame has been released yet.
However, it's suggested that it may go back as early as the 18th century. Producers John Davis and John Fox recently teased that the tone of the film will be close to that of The Revenant. Strangely enough, the first details of the movie came back in 2019 that they were working on a movie about a Comanche woman that goes head to head with gender norms in her tribe. Amber Midthunder was cast in the lead role and is now the central actress in the latest Predator. So it seems that they really are going back in time to do something fresh with the franchise.
Obviously, we'll update as we hear more. But taking the militaristic elements out of the series may be the change that's needed. As 2018's The Predator was expected to be the reset that the franchise needed, it proved to be a box office bomb and critical failure. Maybe it's time to head in a totally different direction.
-CG