The Predators Sequel We Never Got To See
Spoilers for Predators follow
Predators was released in 2010, and despite doing modestly well with critics and at the box office, it never got a proper sequel. 2018's The Predator takes place in the same universe but doesn't carry over any characters or plot points. Considering the upcoming fifth Predator movie is rumored to take place hundreds of years in the past, we're going to assume it won't, either.
That wasn't always the plan, though, as the creative team behind Predators had an idea for a sequel that never ended up happening. The 2010 film follows a group of soldiers, mercenaries, gangsters, and murderers from all over the world who are transported to a strange tropical jungle. It turns out to be a hunting reserve of sorts on an alien planet. Although each of the characters is a killer in their own right, they were brought there to be prey for a group of Predators.
In the end, only two members of the group — US army veteran Royce (Adrien Brody) and Israeli sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga, aka the Queen of the South) — survive. The final moments of the film see Royce and Isabelle watching parachutes falling from the sky, indicating that more prey is arriving. And with more prey inevitably means more Predators.
The ending perfectly sets up a sequel. According to Alex Litvak, who co-wrote the script for Predators along with Michael Finch, they had a detailed follow-up in mind, complete with an incredible twist ending.
Predators 2 would have seen the humans making an escape from the alien planet
While speaking with fansite AvP Galaxy, Litvak laid out what was supposed to go down in the sequel. The film would have begun with Royce and Isabelle recruiting the other humans who arrive at the hunting reserve into what Litvak describes as "their own little tribe on the planet where they're surviving."
Eventually, they would put a plan to escape into action. According to Litvak, their plan involves the humans getting themselves captured in order to infiltrate one of the transport ships. From there, the movie becomes, as Litvak describes it, "Die Hard on a Predator ship."
He went on to add, "now you're trying to take control of the ship with all of the Super Predators you have to fight there. And of course all the other s— that's there...like the alien zoo..."
That all sounds like an extremely appealing direction for a sequel. It not only utilizes the parts of the original film that work, for instance, the concept of the Predator hunting reserve, but it also raises the stakes considerably and expands the lore. Now our heroes are not just trying to stay alive, they are fighting to actually escape the Predator planet.
The Die Hard reference point is very intriguing, but the setting and action-oriented approach also sound slightly reminiscent of one of the most popular sci-fi sequels ever, Aliens. That's fitting, as the movie's proposed ending would introduce a massive franchise melding twist.
The incredible twist being planned for the Predators sequel
Now, you don't even need to be a fan of either franchise to know that Alien and Predator exist in a shared universe of nightmarish extra-terrestrials. This fact was famously established in the Alien vs Predator films, and it would have been hammered home in the proposed Predators sequel.
Litvak explained that after the humans succeeded in making it back to earth, there would be a big reveal: "we land and we realize it's the future! All along we thought this was happening now, but what if these guys have been on ice for 300 years?"
That would put the action of the sequel somewhere between Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection in the timeline of that franchise (via Cinema Blend). According to Litvak, the big crossover reveal would happen when the hijacked Predator ship lands and "the Space [Colonial] Marines come in!" Those who've seen Aliens know the Colonial Marines as the soldiers who Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) teams up with.
Litvak said that despite a studio exec professing to love the idea for the big ending reveal, the sequel simply never came together. Is there any chance of it happening in the future?
Will Predators 2 ever happen?
Sadly, even though the proposed idea for the Predators sequel sounds great, it feels pretty unlikely that we'll ever see it actualized. It has now been over ten years since the film came out and the franchise has moved on in other directions. That's a shame, especially as the two actors they would need to bring on board for the sequel have both spoken fondly of the original film.
In 2014, Brody was asked about his interest in returning for another movie in the Predator franchise during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. While he didn't answer the question directly, he did say, "I loved playing Royce...I campaigned for that role." He went on to add that he regularly felt the love from fans of the franchise, which he says he was "very grateful for."
Braga expressed a similarly rosy view of the movie when she was asked about it by ComingSoon.net in 2020. She said, "I have a lot of fond memories of that film, and actually was discussing it yesterday with a bunch of people, and I really hope the fans keep it in their hearts because it was a special one to make."
It sounds like if a studio exec felt like reviving the sequel idea, they wouldn't have too much trouble wrangling Brody and Braga to return to reprise their roles. However, it seems more likely that fans will have to make do with Litvak's description of what the Predators sequel would have been like.