The most important crossover franchise this aspect of Marvel, Alien and Predator really feel like a match made on the Engineer homeworld. And even when the 2 Alien vs. Predator films directed by Paul W.S. Anderson within the 2000s are extensively thought to be among the worst from each sequence, the idea of the high-tech yautja preventing hordes of acid-blooded xenomorphs stays a extremely compelling one.
Certainly, at the same time as the large display screen each franchises tried to separate within the 2010s, with Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels retconning a number of components of AvP away and Predator rebooting thrice, the versus franchise nonetheless continued with books, comics and video video games. Now, a brand new crossover appears attainable.
Following the shock hit of Prey, Dan Trachtenberg has turn into the franchise custodian and begun fleshing out a brand new canon – a imaginative and prescient that seemingly entails a two-mouthed alien. Predator: Badlands straight lifts the evil firm Weyland-Yutani from Alien and pits them towards a turncloak yautja, leaving the door open for an actual crossover.
Earlier than all that, it’s price taking inventory of the deeper connections between two franchises which have each embraced and tried to distance themselves from one another.
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The Xenomorph Spear – The Predator
Shane Black’s The Predator was on the floor a clear reboot, however the script was stuffed with references to the sooner films, with the occasions of Predators 1 & 2 acknowledged and Jake Busey performed the son of his father’s Predator 2 character.
Alien vs. Predator didn’t get missed both. When Olivia Munn’s Casey Brackett is first taken to the lab stuffed with Predator tech, she first stops by a glass case containing the spear constructed from a xenomorph tail by the hero Predator for Alexa Woods within the first AvP.
It might be only a background wink, but it surely did function the primary true connection between the 2 franchises in over a decade, letting eagle-eyed die-hards know future connections had been nonetheless attainable.
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Predator: Killer of Killers – The Grendel King’s Xenomorph Tails
Earlier than Badlands, Dan Trachtenberg established a lot of his new Predator lore in Hulu film Killer of Killers. It was right here a lot of the Yautja Codex and surrounding ideas – themselves constructing upon a long time of expanded materials – had been crystallized. This contains, albeit subtly, the sequence’ Alien connections.
Within the third chapter, “The Battle”, the transplanted heroes meet the Grendel King, a hulking Predator clan chief. His armor seems to be fabricated from – amongst different issues – xenomorph tails.
Trachtenberg performed coy when requested by ScreenRant, saying “we actually needed to depart it to the followers to think about the place every of these skeletons and items of varied creatures that he clearly has conquered and the place they could’ve come from.” The intention seems clear: xenomorphs exist on this new universe and the killing of them is one thing even a Warlord Predator takes as a degree of delight.
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Alien: Romulus – The Predator/Facehugger Countdown
Alien: Romulus was extra Easter egg than film, with canon connections and winks in the direction of all different films in the primary sequence. Though on the floor it appeared that Fede Alvarez was ignoring the Predator crossover components, the director did affirm one reference.
When the facehuggers within the cryo-chamber start to defrost, the digital temperature readings improve in a fashion just like the Predator’s wrist bomb countdown on the climax of the unique film. Whereas this raise could at first appear tenuous, Alvarez confirmed on X it was a wink, responding to a fan who noticed the egg: “I’m a TAP man, so the whole lot I do is influenced by Terminator / Alien / Predator.”
Since Romulus’ launch, Alvarez has been extra galvanized, saying he want to co-direct an AvP film with Dan Trachtenberg.
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The Xenomorph Cranium – Predator 2
OK, I’ll concede that is now very apparent. Nonetheless, whereas this has ended up being a closely screenshotted second which types the underpinning of a complete franchise, when it first appeared in 1990 the xenomorph cranium within the Predator ship on the climax of Predator 2 was an obscure Easter egg. And it actually was an Easter egg: the intention was tongue-in-cheek, with no concept of the place it might lead.
The implication is solely that this Predator (or one of many clan) has efficiently hunted a xenomorph. On the time, with solely Alien and Aliens launched, that was a really spectacular feat – and spoke to the breadth of attain the yautja had.
The concept of a monster crossover was on the time very out-there, but it surely speaks to each franchises that it now feels extremely apparent.
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Predator: Badlands – The Identical Android Improve As Romulus
Weyland-Yutani are so prevalent in Predator: Badlands all their customary trappings – the androids, MU/TH/UR, the large energy swimsuit – are much less Easter eggs and extra customary world affectations. Nonetheless, there’s one element that forges a stronger connection than merely bringing the corporate into a brand new Predator film.
When Thia, the Weyland-Yutani android performed by Elle Fanning, is shut down, the W emblem of the corporate seems in her eyes. This was first launched as an idea in 2010’s Aliens vs. Predator recreation and made theatrical canon in Alien: Romulus with that film’s android, Andy.
It’s a small element, however one which exists to straight join the 2 current franchise entries, syncing up the presentation of the primary know-how.
