When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, the studio nabbed a whole host of popular franchises. Among them are Alien and Predator, and while the House of Mouse has since developed Prey along with an upcoming Alien movie and TV series, there's one project they have which seemingly won't see the light of day.
Talking on the Perfect Organism Podcast (via IGN), Fox's former licensing director, Joshua Izzo, revealed that he spearheaded an Alien vs. Predator anime series which has yet to see the light of day, even four years after the acquisition was completed.
"There is, sitting at Disney now, at 20th Studios, 10 episodes of a fully completed Alien vs. Predator anime series that I produced," Izzo revealed. "It’s done. It’s in the can. It’s mixed; it’s finished. It was produced and story cracked by Eric Calderon and Dave Baker, two unbelievably crazy talented guys."
Talking about how the project became a reality, he added: "I said, 'Hey listen, I want to pitch this idea of a direct-to-DVD Alien and/or Alien/Predator and/or Predator animation that we, the consumer products division, can sell against. Let us be the masters of our own destiny rather than waiting for theatrical whenever a movie decides to come out.'"
Neither Alien Covenant nor The Predator had been released at the time, and it sounds like Shinji Aramaki (Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Halo Legends, Starship Troopers) was at the helm of this crossover series.
Plans called for the series to be set after the events of Alien vs. Predator and Alien 4, with the episodes split across three DVDs as part of a Home Entertainment release. It's also likely that we'd have seen a mixture of 2D and CG animation that was heavily influenced by anime.
As for why Disney has decided against releasing it, there are any number of possibilities. For starters, the studio may have decided it wasn't up to the quality they would like. There may also be rights issues at play, and we can't discount the possibility the studio wants to hold off on any crossovers before pitting the two iconic aliens against each other in another project, animated or otherwise.
Would you like to see this Alien vs. Predator anime?