Predator 5/Skull News & Updates: Everything We Know

The Predator franchise is headed back with a new installment simply called Skull, which has a female hero and heads back to the distant past. Like The Terminator and Alien, two other sci-fi/horror franchises invented around the same time, it seems like Hollywood just can’t let Predator go for very long. That’s not to say that the franchise doesn’t have any life left in it, but none of the five Predator sequel movies or crossover spinoffs has even come close to the quality of the original 1987 classic.

But Hollywood tries and tries again, hoping against hope that their next Predator effort will be worthy, or at least manage to vacuum up lots of fans’ hard-earned dollars. 2018’s The Predator came up way short of that goal, flat-lining at the box office, and also drawing a very mixed response from the franchise faithful. That’s despite original cast member and now noted filmmaker Shane Black stepping into the director’s chair for The Predator, as well as co-writing the film with The Monster Squad helmer Fred Dekker.

Still, Disney and the remnants of Fox are pressing ahead with a Predator 5, which seems to be titled Skull, although a recent social media post by director Dan Trachtenberg suggested that that may just be the film’s working title, and a final one has yet to be decided. Either way, knowing the Yautja, lots of skulls will be on display in the final product.

Skull Is A Predator Prequel – Where It Sits In The Timeline

Skull will chart a new course for the Predator franchise, as while there’s currently no reason to believe it’ll be a reboot of the continuity, it will be a prequel set prior to the first movie. This is actually the first time the Predator franchise has ever gone the prequel route, as every previous installment, even the Alien vs. Predator crossovers, chronologically took place after the movies released before it.

Predator 5/Skull Story

Full story details on Predator 5, aka Skull, are still mostly under wraps, but the prequel will be about the Yautja race’s first ever arrival on Earth, and the heroic protagonist looking to survive the galaxy’s ultimate hunter will be female this time. Interestingly, comments by producers John Davis and John Fox imply that Skull is set a long, long time ago, possibly prior to modern human civilization, an interesting direction for the franchise to go in.

Predator 5/Skull Cast

While Skull is said to be close to finishing filming, absolutely no casting information has been revealed so far. Logically though, since Predator 5 is a prequel set in the distant past, it’s likely no actors from any prior films will return, outside of maybe a performer inside a Yautja suit. In other words, fans of The Predator shouldn’t expect to see Boyd Holbrook or Olivia Munn show up.

Predator 5/Skull Release Date

While Predator 5, aka Skull, doesn’t yet have an exact release date assigned, it’s expected to arrive in theaters sometime during 2022. That makes sense since it’s so close to wrapping on principal photography. That means Predator fans don’t have too long in the grand scheme that they have to wait to see more Yautja spine-ripping and trophy-collecting.

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