Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator reboot Prey doesn’t even have an official release date locked in as of yet, even if we know it’s heading to Hulu at some point year, but fans are equal parts curious and excited to see what the latest installment in the franchise has in store.
Not only is it the first entry in the long-running series to come backed by the all-powerful Disney machine, but taking the story hundreds of years into the past instantly sets Prey up as a completely fresh and unique spin on the mythology, with the human characters facing a tougher threat than ever before as they gear up to battle the extraterrestrial trophy hunters armed with little more than handmade tools and weapons.
It’s enough to get the pulse racing, especially when Trachtenberg’s 10 Cloverfield Lane proved that he knows his way around an atmospheric genre film that maximizes a high concept, so it’s exciting to hear 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell describe Prey as something of a gamble during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“And coolest of all for fans, we get to find bold takes on beloved Fox properties. You can take big creative swings — which you’ll see with Prey, which we’ll launch this summer. A Predator movie set in the Great Plains in 1719 by Dan Trachtenberg. That’s what this allows us to do.”
So far, all we’ve seen from Prey is a single teaser image, but it surely won’t be too long before some production stills or even a teaser trailer of some description make their way online. As a whole, the Predator franchise has failed to connect with audiences in a significant way since the classic original, but we’re growing increasingly confident that the fifth film in the saga could comfortably go down as the best since Arnold Schwarzenegger and his manly men first set foot in the jungle.