President of Production at 20th Century Studios, Steve Asbell, recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss all things 20th Century Studios and amongst the talk of Avatar and Planet of the Apes, Asbell dropped several updates on the future of Alien and Predator.
Discussing Alien: Romulus’ release pivot of streaming to theatrical, Asbell told The Hollywood Reporter that they’re working on a follow-up to Fede Alvarez’s hugely successful revitalization of Alien’s theatrical presence.
“We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede [Alvarez], but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.”
As the outlet pressed Asbell about other films, they also asked about the possibility of a future Alien vs. Predator film! Prior to the Disney merger, previous executives at 20th Century Fox had said that after the failures of the first two films, Alien vs. Predator was considered something of a cursed title.
Following the merger, many existing AvP licence holders would lose the licence, and we’ve seen no movement from any AvP products since. Marvel still has not republished Dark Horse Comics older titles like they have the seperate Alien and Predator series, nor have they published an original series yet.
by Raymond Swanland
Following the success of both Alien: Romulus and Prey, many within the fandom were hoping that another attempt at a crossover would be likely. Asbell told The Hollywood Reporter that we would “probably” see another Alien vs. Predator on the big screen again, elaborating it wouldn’t be like the previous attempts to realize the iconic crossover in live action.
“It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”
But the biggest news to come out of this interview is the bombshell that there’s another Predator film in the works that isn’t Predator: Badlands or a Prey 2, that will be released before Predator: Badlands finds its way into cinemas.
“There’s a second Predator movie that we have different plans for. Dan has actually directed both. There’s a secret Predator movie that will come out before the theatrical one but I can’t say anything about yet.”
Asbell’s use of “live-action” to specifically describe Predator: Badlands has already led to speculation around the Predator fandom that this secret Predator film will not be. Alien vs. Predator Galaxy can confirm that this new Predator film is indeed an animated feature. Throughout 2024 we’ve heard from multiple sources that a Predator anime film directed by Dan Trachtenberg was in production.
Not only that, Alien vs. Predator Galaxy can also exclusively reveal that as Prey finally gave us a period Predator film, the animated Predator film will finally be pitting the extra-terrestrial hunter against the samurai!
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An anthology spanning different time periods and cultures is already a perfect avenue for Predator. It being animated could open it up to a lot of possibilities as well!
3 seems like a good number for what will likely be a 90-100 minute project (it could be 4 hours for all I know). I hope it's more of the 2D/drawn/anime-ish style animation versus the 3D that we get a lot.
Month ago me is very happy right now.
Anyone have any idea if the three segments will have unique art/animation styles?
Very cool. That's a smart way to give fans the "Predator in multiple eras" stories.
Otherwise it would be a crazy expensive live-action movie!
Multiverse is another option.
Differents universes Alien and Predator too is possible.
Alien in a universe and Predator in other.
There are still several years left for this to happen, if it happens.
But I prefer different universes (Multiverse) not the same one.
Becose i like Alien and Predator independences in their universes.
io9 isn't a major outlet so I would still consider this a rumor but it sounds like there's a possibility we might be getting a Predator in a few different eras in this project
Multiple sources told io9 that the secret Predator project is in fact an animated feature, as many speculated. The twist though is it's almost an anthology, telling three separate stories of Predators fighting warriors in multiple eras. One is potentially pirates, one is potentially samurai, and there's a third one too. io9 reached out to Disney for comment on this but had not heard back as of publication.
Was excited for a second there.
I'm all for that - I would prefer a live action film with a plot like that but either way works. The format for each live action film should simply be dropping a Predator on a hunt in an area of war or conflict throughout different times in history. In my opinion I think that would be a lot of fun and keep things fresh giving new stories to tell with diverse characters and Predators.
I think most causal fans see it as being one universe anyway. I've had people proudly tell me how they "know" that Charles bishop weyland knew about the xenomorphs.
Personally I love if they make it more organic. There's no reason avp can't make for a great, cohesive film.
No confirmation at all of who is working on it. All we know is that it's animated, it's directed by Dan Trachtenberg, it pits a Predator against a Samurai, and it releases on streaming (Hulu in the States, Disney+ everywhere else I assume) in 2025, some time prior to the theatrical release of Badlands.
that would be incredible.
Is Production IG working on it?
Well, Production IG already did Terminator Zero, so it could happen.
This sounds like they'll be building towards the crossover within each franchise. This will open the floodgates to so many reddit/youtube posts of "Predators and Aliens being in the same universe changes everything!" or "The new AvP changes this scene from ... completely!". I'm just so tired.
Please 🙏
Also great to hear Asbell directly say we'll "probably" be getting a new AVP at some point, and that as we kinda figured, they're going to take some time to build up to it. That's basically the best possible approach they could take with that, building it up so that the (general) audience *wants* to see them brought together after a hopefully continually good run of both solo Alien and Predator films.
It's a great time to be a fan, that's for sure!
I'm so with you
Yet those same people yapping will happily go 30 pages deep in a forum where spoilers are found.... anyone complaining about this shit is so dumb. It's truely not hard at all to avoid spoilers if you actually care that much.
Because getting a traditionally animated feature out post-Prey would be nigh on impossible - for a 'good' standard, at least.
The one thing I absolutely don't want is the recent trend of reduced frame rate in animated features. Things like Batman: Ninja and Onimusha. Because whilst they were still very good - I found them difficult to watch in parts as they were quite jarring.
Also, assuming it is 3d - what 'style' of animation? Cel-shaded style like the 2 mentioned? More realstic renders like the Resident Evil animated features?
Now that would be awesome, although I may want to see that in live action too.
Previously unknown Predator film, is an animated feature putting the Predator against samurai?
And then there's Predator: Badlands with Elle Fanning. But that might have an all alien cast?! No human characters?
That might be what they meant by "not what people are expecting". It could very well be a story set on an alien planet with the native population being hunted by a Predator.
To see something like the short story 3 sparks would be BAD ASS. Give me an ONI that is absolutely unstoppable.
Sounds like they plan to get the characters together, perhaps even the Predator ones.
President now says than DAN T had several ideas for that other movie and TWO were accepted ( two of 2025 ).
So PREY II is a different movie.
And Variety was said a year ago that PREY II was in development and the actress said that it was talked about.
Fassbender had better be in it - that's my line.
I KNEW IT.
Salivating at the thought right now...