This week, 20th Century Studios unveiled the newest trailer for Predator: Killer of Killers, its upcoming animated anthology film from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg. Killer of Killers is a story told across time, with three of the "fiercest warriors in human history" clashing with Predators.
According to the official description for the film, it follows "a Viking raider guiding her young son on a bloody quest for revenge, a ninja in feudal Japan who turns against his Samurai brother in a brutal battle for succession, and a WWII pilot who takes to the sky to investigate an otherworldly threat to the Allied cause. But while all these warriors are killers in their own right, they are merely prey for their new opponent – the ultimate killer of killers."
I've consistently gotten the feeling that Trachtenberg is a hardcore fan of the franchise who's very in tune with what other fans would want, and is doing a good job of bringing that to fruition. People have long been asking for a Predator film set in feudal Japan, for example. Killer of Killers is a smaller scale project than a live-action movie would be, but I'm still expecting it to be a banger.
I'm also very curious about how it might tie into Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg's live-action movie coming out on November 7. Since Trachtenberg worked on both of these films concurrently, there's the possibility we could see Killer of Killers tee up Badlands. From the final shot of the trailer, I'm wondering even more if that's going to be the case.
Will we see a Predator hunting ground in Predator: Killer of Killers?
Killer of Killers takes place across three distinct time periods, each separated by hundreds of years. Intriguingly, it seems like the Predator itself is also progressing through these different eras; don't forget, Prey introduced us to a Predator with more antiquated technology than we're used to seeing from the alien hunters, since it took place around 250 years before the original 1987 movie. Killer of Killers will take us even farther back for the Viking era and feudal Japan sections.
But then it will also take us forward, when we see a Predator use its spaceship to shoot down fighter jet pilots during World War II. I have a feeling this will lean into the idea that the Predator came to Earth during that time when humans finally had dangerous aircraft in order to test themselves against these new machines and their pilots.
At the very end of the trailer, we see the main World War II pilot character, who thus far has not been named, in captivity. "What happens if we survive?" he asks. He's wearing a futuristic collar, and squints as a door opens in front of him. Then the camera cuts to the back of a Predator, who's wearing a bunch of enormous spine trophies like a cloak, walking down the ramp of its ship and out onto a barren-looking landscape.
We've seen Predator hunting worlds before, most notably in the third film in the series, Predators (2010), so I wouldn't normally jump to assume any other world shown in Killer of Killers is from Badlands. But since we know Trachtenberg is behind both Killer of Killers and Badlands, and they're releasing only a few months apart, I wonder if we might see the World War II pilot get taken to the Badlands world at the very end of the animated film. This would set up the idea of this alien planet, where we'll see a young Predator on their very first hunt in the distant future during Predator: Badlands.
Of course, this is just my speculation. But considering the scope and ambition of Trachtenberg's Predator movies, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some sort of connective tissue between Killer of Killers and Badlands.
Predator: Killer of Killers — Where to Watch
Predator: Killer of Killers premieres June 6, exclusively on Hulu. Presumably, you'll also be able to watch it on Hulu's sister streaming service, Disney+. Predator: Badlands releases in theaters on November 7.
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