Fans of the Predator franchise have been eagerly awaiting more news on the super secretive latest installment from 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg. Well, the wait is temporarily over, as we now have a bit more light to shed on the upcoming installment.

A Slip of the Tongue?

Collider announced a fair bit of information today on Trachtenberg’s addition to the franchise, the biggest part of which was the name, supposedly Skulls. That’s been its working title, which was made public in November of 2020 when Deadline initially announced the project. However, we believe producer John Davis may have misspoken. Our sources have informed us that this is not, in fact, going to be the official title of the film, though we haven’t been given further information on the matter.

Regardless, Trachtenberg’s film will focus on the origin story of the Predator’s first journey to Earth and should, as a result, be a callback to the first film’s survivalist tone. “It goes back to what made the original Predator movie work,” Davis told Collider. “It’s the ingenuity of a human being who won’t give up, who’s able to observe and interpret, basically being able to beat a stronger, more powerful, well-armed force.”

Considering how Shane Black’s The Predator (2018) went over (ie: not well), I think it’s safe to say this makes us all cautiously optimistic. The first film in the franchise is undoubtedly the strongest, a classic in its own right for many reasons. The idea of bringing it back to what made that film so explosive is genuinely compelling.

Predator But Make it Period

Producer John Fox hinted at the film potentially leaning more towards a period piece of sorts, saying, “It actually has more akin to The Revenant than it does any film in the Predator canon.”

Well, color me intrigued!

Considering we don’t know how old the original Predator was or officially how long they can live (it’s suggested they can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years, according to fan theory), it stands to reason that our original Predator had been around for some time before Arnold told folks to get to the choppa.

“You can use your imagination,” Fox added. “It is…early.”

What’s more important (at least to this writer) is that the film’s hero is a woman, according to Davis, “which I always think is interesting,” he said.

*Pause for momentary embolism.*

We know that Amber Midthunder has been attached to the project, so it looks like she may be our hero. This testosterone-fueled franchise may finally get an adequate shot of estrogen which could be huge. Especially after how Olivia Munn was treated in the previous installment.

Could this iteration pass the Bechdel test or even the Kent test?

Probably not, let’s be honest. The Predator films don’t have a good track record for women’s characters. But I’ll be damned if I give up hope that a hyper-macho franchise could continue to kick copious amounts of ass while being legitimately inclusive (tokenism need not apply).

The post The New ‘Predator’ Movie Will Follow the First Predator Who Came to Earth appeared first on /Film.