Overnight, Dan Trachtenberg became the Predator whisperer. His Comanche action-horror prequel Prey breathed life into the uneven franchise, and its success opened the door to pitch future entries. One idea became Predator: Badlands, which is slotted for a November 7th, 2025 release date (with new details coming out of CinemaCon this past weekend). But what […]
When asked why on Earth he’d make two films at once, Trachtenberg chuckled and admitted, “This all was like a game of hopscotch…That was dumb. I hope I don’t do it again.”
Oh, I should probably tell you that I was lucky enough to watch the first twenty-ish minutes of Predator: Killer of Killers with Trachtenberg in attendance. That spanned the icy Viking revenge arc in its entirety, which, let me confirm, doesn’t lose a lick of Predator signatures through illustration versus a gore-forward, practical effects showcase. The spectacle of action sequences and brutal kill shots reminds me of Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Warner Bros. Animation’s hyper-violent and bone-shattering animated franchise starter. Another journalist quickly pointed out how the visual design resembles Netflix’s Arcane (complimentary), which Trachtenberg cited as an artistic inspiration.
Predator: Killer of Killers marks The Third Floor’s first full-length feature, but they’re no rookies. As Trachtenberg notes, Wassung and his team have handled VFX for countless properties you’ve loved across Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, The Boys, Netflix Originals—the list continues. Many companies contributed to the film, but Wassung’s co-director tag speaks to Trachtenberg’s enthusiasm about working together, laying the groundwork for visual compositions that do not lack survivalist ferocity or intensity despite biased preconceptions about cartoons.
This isn’t Trachtenberg’s first animated rodeo, either. He recalls directing the opening cinematic for a video game titled Warframe, and how the experience made him realize there’s not that stark a difference between live-action and animated filmmaking. “I was so struck by how animation, on the one hand, you can do anything—but also, you become just as limited as you do in live action.” The number of sets costs money, the number of characters, the number of wardrobes, yadda yadda. That experience helped Trachtenberg “shoot it the way I would a live-action movie, and so that it felt cinematic from my voice.”
Of the elements to be excited about, segment individuality remains paramount. “Most characters are dealing with generational [issues], trying to break a cycle. All the chapters are different genre-wise.” The frosty, fog-thick battlegrounds of 841 AD have a chill to them as this badass Viking death-dealer avenges her lineage while massacring her foes, yet the trailer footage for the American pilot segment looks much brighter and more adventure-centric. But, thematically, all segments are driven by a simple question: “Who would be a unique challenge for the Predator?” Time periods were chosen based on their trademark fighting capabilities and “cool” factor, from Japanese samurai choreography to WW2 airborne dogfights. The door is wide open to so many alternate possibilities, but Trachtenberg confirms Predator: Killer of Killers was created to stand alone, always as an anthology feature (versus, say, television episodes).
“You don’t want to feel shortchanged by the experience, that it was incomplete. I won’t sleep at night if I don’t feel like I’ve communicated everything I wanted to with [Badlands and Killer of Killers].
It’s clear how Trachtenberg and screenwriter Micho Robert Rutare want to embolden Yautja lore beyond its familiar attributes. In the segment we watched, the Predator looms a bulkier build with this sonic charge-up fist weapon that introduces never-before-seen technology. He’s a heavyweight Yautja, throwing haymakers that turn craniums into splattery mist. Predator: Killer of Killers takes advantage of its medium and visualizes Predator storytelling that’d otherwise be far harder to accomplish in live-action. Trachtenberg likens his approach to his experiences at sleepovers: “When I was 12, and I saw Akira for the first time, and I was like, what the fuck? What did I just see? I can’t believe a movie could be like that.” He wants Predator: Killer of Killers to be that sleepover awakening for a new generation of movie lovers.
If my multiple gasps during bloodthirsty Viking warfare are a tell, he’s on the right track. There’s one decapitation, a head popped between two crescent cutouts on dual-bladed spherical shields, that’s worth the price of admission alone.
Predator: Killer of Killers makes the impossible, or at least improbable, possible. Stan Winston‘s legendary Predator body suit and mechanical facial effects are Hall of Fame craftsmanship, but exhibit limitations. Through animation, Predators aren’t inhibited by their costumes. There’s an entire underwater combat sequence in the footage we saw, and more elaborate and far-fetched science fiction gizmos. Trachtenberg’s not trying to overwrite a legacy, but to bring the Predator franchise to the “next level.” Oh, the places the Yautja can go are endless, and it won’t cost live-action budgets.
Since Badlands is on the horizon, we tried to connect continuity dots. As per a cheeky and coy Trachtenberg: “There’s so much cool stuff in this movie. It might even go into more than Badlands or—or it might not.” There’s also a framing device that looks oddly familiar to Nimrod Antal’s Predators, with prisoners en route somewhere, but evidently that’s just a coincidence. “It’s different. You do not need to [rewatch] Predators.” Predator: Killer of Killers is its own beast, themed around a throughline of courage and tenacity in the face of Yautja threats. “The movie is very much about the connection between the characters, as much as the stories themselves.”
With that enthusiasm, Trachtenberg plans to crack open the Predator franchise and expose vast new worlds. There are no current plans for a sequel, but it’s hard to foresee any future where Predator: Killer of Killers—as long as it’s deemed successful—doesn’t add future chapters. There are so many breeds of soldiers for the Yautja to de-spine, and as many variations you can spin on Predator builds. Predator: Killer of Killers could be the start of something fantastic, but at the very least, it promises three brand new Predator experiences like you’ve never seen before.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
