While Arnold Schwarzenegger has repeatedly returned to the Terminator franchise (for better or worse), he has yet to reprise his role as Dutch in another Predator movie after starring in the 1987 classic helmed by John McTiernan.
In the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, we learned that Dutch is being held in stasis, alongside Prey's Naru. That sets the stage for the character to appear in a future Predator project, meaning Schwarzenegger could finally return to one of his most iconic roles.
Talking to Empire, filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg confirmed he's spoken with the screen icon and that the door is now open to some very exciting storytelling possibilities moving forward.
"I met Arnold, and he said, 'You’d think I get, 'l’ll be back,' yelled at me most, but it’s actually, 'Get to the chopper!' So, he’s well aware of the franchise’s staying power," the director explained. "He was excited to talk about what else we could do."
"Because there’s so much more story to tell now — you could tell how [Dutch and Naru] were captured," Trachtenberg added, "or what happens when they’re de-iced. Many possibilities."
Beyond Arnie, it feels a lot like Trachtenberg is also laying the groundwork for an eventual Alien vs. Predator crossover. Predator: Killer of Killers teased a past clash between the Yautja and Xenomorphs, while the upcoming Predator: Badlands will see Elle Fanning play Thia, a Weyland-Yutani android.
That's led to fans wondering whether a Xenomorph could make a surprise appearance in the movie, and Trachtenberg has now set the record straight.
"There’s no Xenomorph in this movie," he confirmed. "But to me, that makes it more exciting. We’re not involving [the Alien franchise] just to smush the action figures together. There are great, organic story reasons for Weyland-Yutani to be in this film."
"Thia has been on Genna a while, seeing things she wouldn’t normally see," Trachtenberg continued. "She’s absorbing all this new information, and she’s broken too, so she’s become very different from the other synths."
So, a clash between Alien and Predator is off the table for the time being, but that doesn't mean Predator: Badlands won't set the stage for one. As for Schwarzenegger's possible return, only time will tell when, where, and indeed if it ever happens.
The movie, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
Dan Trachtenberg directs and produces Predator: Badlands alongside John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, and Brent O’Connor.
Predator: Badlands opens exclusively in movie theaters on November 7 in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens everywhere.