‘Predator: Killer of Killers’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
On Hulu on June 6th is ‘Predator: Killer of Killers,’ an animated anthology that has Predator creatures dropping in on three very different time periods of Earth.
Dan Trachtenberg certainly brought a breath of fresh air to the ‘Predator’ franchise after even Shane Black couldn’t manage to breathe new life into it with the disappointing ‘The Predator.’ So Trachtenberg has naturally been given free rein to explore other avenues, and he’s been on a cherry picking mission through the wider Predator mythology (which includes comic books, novelizations and video games) to find different looks for the Yautja aliens –– the Predators’ actual species name –– and different human challenges for them to face.
Yet as with any attempt to build on an existing franchise, does ‘Killer of Killers’ establish itself as worthy?
Trachtenberg worked up the story for the new movie alongside Micho Robert Rutare, with the latter tasked into turning their concepts into a screenplay. The result, as with any anthology is a mixed bag, with one of the stories standing out from the others; though all have something to recommend them.
The first, ‘The Shield,’ takes place in Viking times (841 A.D. if you really want to get specific), and sees a Predator incursion interrupting a clash between clan leader Ursa and Zoran, the war chief who murdered her father. A little like ‘Prey,’ it follows a rite of passage, as Ursa’s son Anders is being encouraged to fight like a warrior. Suffice to say, there are plenty of hacked limbs and slashed midriffs –– and that’s before the Predator creature even shows up.
‘The Shield’ manages some good moments undercutting expectations, though it is also relatively slight.
‘The Sword’ brings us forward in time to Samurai-era Japan, where a ninja has turned against the Samurai brother he was raised opposite. This time, the story of vengeance is slightly more nuanced, and the Predator who arrives to add to the chaos nimbler than the previous example.
Finally, ‘The Bullet,’ the third story, is set during World War II and features something truly new and different –– at least in big-screen ‘Predator’ action –– while it is the story of young mechanic (and wannabe pilot) Torres, it’s mostly set in the air, as American fighter planes take on a Predator spaceship.
It won’t surprise you to learn, particularly given Trachtenberg’s involvement, that there is also more going on here –– but spoiler concerns prevent us from talking more about that element. Suffice to say, there are connections here that slowly reveal themselves, and deepen the story.
On the animation front, Josh Wassung’s team acquit themselves admirably, creating subtly different styles for each time period, but finding a way to have them feel of a piece. While occasional moments can look like a video game cutscene, and the jerky animation can take a little getting used to, the overall effect works.
And, as mentioned, setting these stories in an animated world gives plenty of scope for bigger action set pieces and wilder moments.
Barring one or two recognizable names (Michael Biehn, Rick Gonzalez, Lauren Holt, Louis Ozawa and Doug Cockle), the voice cast here is mostly made up of people who will be familiar to die-hard gamers and animation fans.
Still, there are effective performances here –– Gonzalez gets a chance to shine as Torres, the young mechanic with some serious piloting chops in the World War II entry, while Lindsay LaVanchy does good work as Ursa, the Viking warrior aiming to forge the next generation of fighter while burning with vengeful fury.
Though the script and, by nature the anthology format, doesn’t always give the cast the most rounded of characters to play, they all work well.
Some ‘Predator’ fanatics might quibble with a few details here and there, and the quality of the stories can be mixed, but ‘Killer of Killers’ proves to be a welcome addition to the franchise, providing some visuals that would be prohibitively expensive in live-action and leaning into the mythology.
A few lingering story tendrils push it into Marvel territory in terms of wondering if this is all place-setting for Trachtenberg’s upcoming live-action ‘Predator: Badlands,’ but again, to even speculate about that is verging on spoiler territory.
And regardless, ‘Killer of Killers’ manages to tell a mostly contained, solid story with some welcome, clever nods to the ‘Predator’ movies of the past.
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What’s the story of ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’?
The anthology story follows three of the fiercest warriors in human history: 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.
Who is in the cast of ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’?
Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
Preview:
Disney brought several movies to its CinemaCon 2025 presentation.
The likes of ‘Tron: Ares,’ ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ and more were showcased.
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ also showed footage, alongside Pixar’s Elio, Freakier Friday and the new, live-action/CG ‘Lilo & Stitch
While it is still looking to rebuild its fortunes, Disney can at least look back on 2024 as one with several big hits, especially ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’
But it will have to prove that this year’s slate can match past successes. Luckily, the Mouse House has more strings to its bow than even the likes of Universal or Warner Bros., and heavy hitters including Pixar, Marvel and James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ series primed and ready with new entries, plus the return of ‘Tron’ to the grid… er, cinemas.
Following the usual stuff about sponsors and theater owners (got to play to the crowd!), the Disney presentation signaled the end of CinemaCon’s studio events and began with the traditional sizzle reel of upcoming movies, framed in amusing fashion by having ‘Lilo & Stitch’s titular blue troublemaker wander through the rest of the slate.
Getting the presentation off to its formal stage start was Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment.
He was joined by Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution at the studio to unveil the typically packed schedule of movies the studio will have across the rest of the year, and to extol the fact that Disney movies are Disney movies are typically in theaters an average of three weeks longer than any other studio.
2025’s live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch’. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures.
The latest animated-to-live-action conversion project faces additional pressure following ‘Snow White’s poor showing at the box office this past month. With Disney bosses pushing pause on a planned ‘Tangled’ live-action movie, ‘Lilo’ will need to perform in order to keep that particular strand of the company’s strategy alive beyond ‘Moana,’ due next year.
Some fresh, sneak peek footage from the new movie was screened for the crowd, featuring Stitch on a trip with Lilo and family; they go to a restaurant where the little blue alien causes the requisite chaos even as Lilo tries to teach him to behave. Some of what was shown has already popped up in the trailer, including Stitch squirting her with a soda gun.
(L to R) Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan were ushered on stage to promote this sequel to the 2003 original, which moves the story forward and features even more body-switching chaos than last time as Curtis’ Tess and Lindsay’s Anna Coleman switch places with their teenage daughter/granddaughter.
Curtis and Lohan cued up a look at some brand new footage from the movie, which according to the duo has been playing well with test audiences.
Curtis says that the film was…
“Made to be seen on a big screen.”
The scene played showed Tess and Anna trying to win back Anna’s boyfriend –– but in different bodies.
‘Freakier Friday’ brings body swap chaos to theaters on August 8th.
(L to R) Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
The studio went all out with a light show to promote the third ‘Tron’ movie, and also brought Jeff Bridges and new franchise face Jared Leto to the stage.
Bridges said,
“To be back on the grid was incredible, and working with Jared… It was a great time.”
For his part, Leto said he was obsessed and this was everything he wanted from a movie. It took him to a world he had never seen before.
Leto described his character, Ares:
“An advanced program that crosses over to real world to fulfill his directive.”
After confirmation of Nine Inch Nails doing the music for the new movie, we got a look at some new footage.
What was screened was a look at Ares riding his bike in the real world, with Bridges’ Kevin Flynn narrating. We also see him ask Ares, “Are you ready? Because there is no coming back…”
‘Tron: Ares’ departs the grid for our world on October 10th.
With ‘The Amateur’ due on screens next week, its chunk of the presentation was minimal, limited to a full version of the scene in the pool we glimpse in the trailer, but show full-length here. It was followed by the trailer.
‘The Amateur,’ as mentioned, will find a way into theaters on April 11th.
Elle Fanning at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas.Photo: Disney.
The new ‘Predator’ movie from ‘Prey’s Dan Trachtenberg immediately looked interesting, since the Predator creature is more of a protagonist in this one, and it takes place on a new planet where he’s been exiled and must fight his way back.
Star (no, not as the Predator!) Elle Fanning arrived on stage to confirm that this movie breaks new ground in the ‘Predator’ universe. She also said something unprecedented happens. Her character is not being chased, she teams up with Predator and you see him in new light.
She cued up the first trailer for the new movie, which sees the Predator battling a giant, nearly invincible beast with Fanning’s help.
‘Predator: Badlands’ stalks into cinemas on November 7th.
Strong, for the record, plays Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager and producer. He said he sees the role as Lewis to Springsteen’s Clark.
White, meanwhile, explains that the movie charts Springsteen’s teenage years to around 1982.
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere.’ Photo: 20th Century Studios.
We got a first look at the trailer for the new movie, which is directed by Scott Cooper. The footage wraps up showing Springsteen in concert performing ‘Born to Run.’
‘Deliver Me from Nowhere’ has yet to announce when it’ll be delivered to theaters.
(L to R) Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
James L. Brooks’ new comedy drama stars Emma Mackey as an idealistic young politician who juggles familial issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over the job of her mentor, the state’s longtime incumbent governor (Albert Brooks).
She co-stars with Jamie Lee Curtis, and the latter returned to the stage alongside Mackey for the presentation.
Brooks, meanwhile, received the Cinema Vérité Award on stage and called for more movies to have a 35-day window in theaters.
Director James L. Brooks receives the Cinema Vérité Award at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
He also had a great quote about previewing movies with audiences:
“A woman came up to me and said the loveliest words: ‘they’re crying in the ladies toilet.’ Compare that to data.”
After Brooks’ emotional speech, we got a first look at the movie itself. The scene that played took place in a bar, where Curtis’ character takes Ella to meet her father, Woody Harrelson. They haven’t spoken in years after he dated her friend.
That was followed the trailer.
‘Ella McCay’ will be in cinemas on September 19th.
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From there, it was time to look at team Searchlight’s output, following a victory lap for the awards success of ‘A Real Pain’ and ‘A Complete Unknown.’ The studio arm’s new offering is…
Unlike the 1989 version, this Jay Roach-directed sees Cumberbatch and Colman as a successful chef and her businessman husband whose lives start to fall apart when he’s fired.
Things go from bad to worse, and as we saw in the trailer that played, it gets to the point where she has him at gunpoint.
‘The Roses’ fights for its place in theaters on August 29th.
Talking of guns, we moved on to one of the studio’s biggest… Marvel!
First up was the next movie from the prolific superhero franchise.
(L To R) David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
The ‘Thunderbolts*’ portion of the show kicked off with a funny bit about the cast being MIA –– Wyatt Russell appeared to have lost a lot of cash in the casino with co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus hoping the movie makes money so they can pay his debts!
The scene featured the Thunderbolts driving through New York as Harbour’s Red Guardian tries to bond with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). The team has to fight their way through bad guys to Avengers tower.
(L To R) Hannah John-Kamen, Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Wyatt Russell in ‘Thunderbolts*’. Photo: Marvel Studios.
We got an extended look at the Avengers Tower scene where Louis-Dreyfus gathers the gang –– after having sent them to kill each other and being frustrated that they teamed up.
There was also a very brief look at the introduction of Sentry (Lewis Pullman). And following that? A sizzle reel of scenes from the movie, which appears to be full of chaotic fun.
‘Thunderbolts*’ heads to cinemas on May 2nd. Less than a month for this one, folks!
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That was followed by Marvel boss Kevin Feige, currently in the UK on the set of ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ (which is “days away from the start of production”) confirming the appearance of the original X-Men team in the new movie.
We also got our first look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer, who cautions that planet Earth is “marked for death.” Kirby’s Sue Storm says they’ll “fight the threat as a family”.
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ flies into theaters on July 25th.
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To switch tracks (but still be galactic rather than Galactus), it was the turn of the animation arm(s).
Zoe Saldaña at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
Pixar’s latest finds a young lad dreaming of being abducted by aliens.
Zoe Saldaña, who plays the title character’s Aunt Olga, arrived on stage to talk about the new ‘toon.
A scene from the movie was shown in 3D, showing Elio brought on board an alien spaceship that is more like a living planet via a tractor beam, where he meets the vessel’s AI. He’s been recruited to join the universe’s smartest creatures to work together as a collective… But have they made a mistake? Elio meets and bonds with a young alien creature.
‘Elio’ heads into space (and theaters) on June 20th.
Ke Huy Quan introduces ‘Zootopia 2’ at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
Thanksgiving sees the return of Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), the mismatched buddy duo of rabbit police officer and crafty fox. This time around, they’re on an undercover mission to stop a murderous reptile (Ke Huy Quan’s Gary).
In a video introduction, we got Bateman changing the show’s title to “ZinemaCon” and there are animal jokes about theaters –– AMZ, Pandango, Fur D X, followed by giving other Disney movies critter-like makeovers (‘Thundercolts,’ ‘Sealio,’ ‘The Fantastic Fur.’)
‘Zootopia 2’. Photo: Disney.
Quan arrived on stage to discuss the sequel and his role as Gary the snake. And that Judy and Nick go to a therapy animal (played by ‘Abbot Elementary’s Quinta Brunson) to sort their strained friendship –– which we saw in a scene from the movie. That was followed by a scene of Nick and Judy at Marsh resort trying to track down Gary.
‘Zootopia 2’ goes wild in theaters on November 26th.
Zoe Saldaña at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
James Cameron appeared via video from New Zealand, where he’s still at work on the latest ‘Avatar’ outing. He was sorry he isn’t there in person, but he did tell the crowd he’d sent some footage.
He promised “increased emotional heart and soul,” and that the Sully family will be put through the wringer (again) as they face the Ash People. We’ll also meet the Wind Traders.
Saldaña (who has been part of the franchise since the 2009 original) returned to the stage to introduce the footage.
Zoe Saldaña at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
We saw Jake and wife Neytiri (Saldaña) flying a dragon creature to Wind Traders’ ship where Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), the son of Miles Quaritch, lives now.
That preceded a reel of other scenes, including Jake telling Neytiri they can’t live in hate, humans attacked the Na’vi, a shot of the whale-like creatures we met in ‘The Way of Water,’ the return of Stephen Lang’s Quaritch and Varang, the Na’vi leader of the volcano-dwelling Ash People threatening Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine’s Na’vi avatar who was adopted by the Sully family.
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ welcomes us back to Pandora on December 19th.
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And that’s all, folks!
(L To R) Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, and Hannah John-Kamen at the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas. Photo: Disney.
‘Prey’ director Dan Trachtenberg has shot both follow-up ‘Badlands’ and a new secret movie.
The other movie is likely to arrive via streaming.
20th Century boss Steve Asbell offered other updates in a new interview.
Ever since ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ director Dan Trachtenberg brought the ‘Predator’ franchise roaring back to life with 2022’s ‘Prey’ (a prequel to the franchise entries that landed on Hulu to huge viewing figures), we’ve been waiting for more news about his follow-up.
Then, back in June this year, word arrived that Elle Fanning was in talks for the next movie to come from Trachtenberg, ‘Predator: Badlands.’ It’s a stand-alone that features no connective tissue to ‘Prey’ other than the appearance of at least one of the movies’ trademark toothy hunters.
According to Asbell, there will indeed be two ‘Predator’ movies headed our way next year.
One is ‘Badlands,’ which wrapped recently in New Zealand and, yes, features Fanning. The other? That’s more of a mystery for now.
This is what Asbell said:
“After ‘Prey’ became a success, Dan came back and said he didn’t want to do ‘Prey 2.’ And we’re like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We’ve actually done two of them.”
He had no other real details on the second film, other than to say Trachtenberg directed it before heading out to make ‘Badlands’ and that it probably won’t be released theatrically, which is the destination for ‘Badlands.’
Little has been released about the plot for ‘Badlands,’ and indeed Asbell offers not much by way of detail, other than to say:
“It is an absolutely bonkers idea. It is a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is. And I mean, it’s awesome. It is so nuts. But in Dan, we trust.”
One of the other big 20th Century sci-fi franchises, ‘Alien,’ also saw love this year.
‘Alien: Romulus,’ directed by Fede Alvarez, was a success at the box office, and a sequel is in the works.
This is what Asbell had to say about the future of the franchise:
“We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede, 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.”
That would also make people think about the times that the ‘Alien’ and ‘Predator’ franchises have crossed over –– but according to Asbell, while he and his team are thinking about it, don’t expect them to rush into the idea:
“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.”
