Every Predator Sequel Ends With A Lie

"Predator: Badlands" hit movie theaters with all the might of a shoulder cannon in November 2025. It earned positive reviews from critics and blew everyone away at the box office with a $40 million domestic haul from its opening weekend, a best for the franchise. Even with all this success, there's a chance we'll never see Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Thia (Elle Fanning) again based on a troubling trend within the series. Check out Looper's video above to see for yourself how every "Predator" sequel ends on a lie. 

The lie in question is that "Predator" movies usually tease something bigger on the horizon that just ... never happens. As cool as it would be to see Dek and Thia battle Dek's mother, who pops up in the final moments of "Badlands," that moment may be left to fans' imaginations. 1987's "Predator" ends with mercenary Dutch Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) defeating the Yautja, and while there's not much of a sequel hint, it would've made sense to continue a series with a bankable star like Schwarzenegger at the helm. When "Predator 2" came out three years later, Danny Glover played the lead, LAPD cop Mike Harrigan. That one set up a direct sequel much more explicitly, with his character mentioning how more Predators are likely coming to Earth. He's right, but he's apparently never a part of it. 

We wouldn't see either Dutch or Mike again until a brief post-credits scene in the animated film "Predator: Killer of Killers," showing how the Yautja have captured the humans who bested some of their kind previously. But is that tease going to lead anywhere?

It's funny and a little sad that the only "Predator" movie with a proper sequel is "Alien vs. Predator," which got a follow-up in the form of "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem." But most fans tend to ignore those entries, so as far as regular "Predator" movies go, they're all largely standalone installments. 2010's "Predators," which takes place on another planet that's basically a Yautja hunting preserve, ends with Royce (Adrien Brody) and Isabelle (Alice Braga) as the sole survivors. When it seems like more Predators are on the way, Royce mentions needing to find a way back home. We never find out what happened to them, and they're not even included in the "Predator: Killer of Killers" post-credits scene. 

2018's "The Predator" ends with humanity getting gifted a "Predator Killer" suit, but nothing ever happens there. 2022's "Prey" probably sticks closest in tone to the first where it could largely function as a one-off escapade, but a post-credits scene suggests more Yautja vessels interacted with Naru (Amber Midthunder) and her Comanche tribe. Perhaps these Yautja were the ones who kidnapped Naru to put her in stasis at the end of "Predator: Killer of Killers" alongside Dutch and Mike, but there's still a ton of missing information. 

There's nothing wrong with "Predator" movies focusing on new people each time, but it's baffling that they always seem to be hinting at something more that never comes to fruition. That could change very soon, though. Dan Trachtenberg, who directed "Prey," "Predator: Killer of Killers," and "Predator: Badlands," has apparently met with Arnold Schwarzenegger about coming back to the series. Maybe we'll get a big "Predator" event film that ties everything together? One can dream. To make sure you're up to date with all the loose threads that the "Predator" sequels have left dangling over the years, check out the video above.