Jake Busey explains where he fits in Shane Black’s new The Predator reboot

Shane Black's THE PREDATOR is on the way, and the plot has been kept mostly under wraps. All we know for sure is it opens with some soldiers in a truck, that it's set mostly in the suburbs, and that they cast Jake Busey to play the son of Gary Busey's character from PREDATOR 2. Now, that is actually more weird than it initially appears. Not that Black cast Jake to play his father's character's offspring or anything, but because of the wonky timeline deployed by the PREDATOR series itself.

See, while the original PREDATOR seemed to just be set in modern day, the sequel is inexplicably set in the future year of 1997…while the film came out in 1990. Not only that, but it's depicted as a slight dystopia as well. So how does the film reconcile this discrepancy?

Here's what Jake had to say in an exclusive interview with Pop Culture.com:

This one definitely falls in line with the original franchise…[it] felt that it would be a nice tie-in, and something to add some depth and connectivity between the two films, sort of tying the franchise together in a tighter knot having the characters more closely bound…I remember visiting my dad on the set [of Predator 2] and him showing me his suit and his haircut. It definitely looked different than what people were wearing at the time. I remember thinking, 'Wow, yeah. He definitely looks futuristic.

So…that doesn't answer much. It seems the film is either a) ignoring the alternate future 1997 from the sequel, or b) fully embracing it, and making it clear the Predator series is set in a world that went to shit in '97, getting overrun by Jamaican drug lords. In some ways, I'm glad Black isn't shying away from the Predator legacy to reboot it, and is instead meeting it head-on.

Meanwhile, THE PREDATOR will stalk theaters August 3rd, 2018.