Two classic sci-fi horror franchises were recently given new leases of life, with the Predator returning to hunt his Prey in Dan Trachtenberg's 2022 movie, and the Xenomorphs back to their chest-bursting best in this year's Alien: Romulus.
Both films were critically-acclaimed and very popular with audiences, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that Disney-owned 20th Century Studios is planning more instalments.
We already knew that a Prey spin-off titled Badlands was in the works, but 20th Century Studios boss Steve Asbell has now revealed that a "secret" Predator movie will also be with us next year that will also be helmed by Trachtenberg. Badlands will be a theatrical release, but it sounds like this other film will be going straight to streaming.
"There’s a second Predator movie that we have different plans for. Dan has actually directed both. There’s a secret Predator movie that will come out before the theatrical one but I can’t say anything about yet."
We had previously been led to believe that a Prey sequel was also on the way, but that no longer seems to be the case.
"Yes, a Predator movie will have a theatrical. I’ll tell you very simply. After Prey became a success, Dan [Trachtenberg] came back and said he didn’t want to do Prey 2. And we’re like, “What do you want to do?” And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We’ve actually done two of them. Two are coming out next year. One I can’t talk about yet, but the other one is the live-action Predator film with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. That’ll be out theatrically sometime next year."
As for Romulus, Asbell confirmed that director Fede Alvarez is in talks to helm a direct sequel that would continue the journey of the survivors of the previous movie, Rain Carradine and her android brother, Andy.
"We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is."
Finally, Asbell said that we will "probably" see a new Alien Vs. Predator movie at some point - but it will be nothing like the earlier films.
"It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out."
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"Not a perfect organism, but despite an overreliance on retreading over old ground, Alien: Romulus does mark a thrilling return to form, and is surely destined to be ranked as the third-best Alien movie," we said in our review of Alien: Romulus.
"The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful Alien franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe."
The film stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), and Aileen Wu. Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
Alien: Romulus is produced by Ridley Scott (Napoleon), who directed the original Alien and produced and directed the series’ entries Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Michael Pruss (Boston Strangler), and Walter Hill (Alien), with Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon (Charlie’s Angels), Brent O’Connor (Bullet Train), and Tom Moran (Unstoppable) serving as executive producers.