Set Visit: Everything you need to know about Shane Black’s The Predator

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Now that you've seen the first trailer for Shane Black's THE PREDATOR and, presumably, read our initial rundown of the set interview with him, here's a roll-up of all you need to know about the film as we draw closer to seeing it for ourselves. We visited the set back in April of 2017 as they were about halfway done with filming (day 34 of 66) and while they kept quite a bit back in order to keep the surprises and mystery alive, there's still a good amount of info that was shared via cast and crew interviews, as well as the things we picked up on set. So, with that, check out all the things we found interesting or of note for the newest iteration in THE PREDATOR franchise.

– The film is set 30 years after the events of the 1987 film

– Shane Black’s inspiration for taking on the film was to recreate an old-school genre mash-up

– The film does not take place solely in the suburbs, as has been reported in the past. There are multiple locations throughout the film, although a big part is spent in Georgia

– The film will attempt to explore the evolutionary aspect of the Predator race and examine why they do what they do (i.e. hunt) and what the next step is for them

– The government is not only aware of the Predator race, but is actively studying and preparing to deal with them

– The protagonists of the film, next to Jacob Tremblay’s Rory and Olivia Munn’s scientist character are a group of psychologically wounded vets who are referred to as “The Loonies” who are in therapy together at the VA in “Group 2”

– Part of the reason for making these guys “wounded Vets” was to fight against the trope of the perfect soldiers battling the Predator, much like it was in the ’87 film

–Jacob Tremblay plays Rory, the son of Boyd Holbrook’s character, who is a kid that has autism, likes to build things and finds a mysterious package delivered to his house one day that is carrying a Predator gauntlet. Rory is able to decipher it in a way that no one ever has and unlocks some of its hidden capabilities.

“Well, when I was little and I was supposed to do audition takes, when I was like five, if it was for a horror movie what would help me is my parents would show me a picture of Chucky [laughs] And I’d go crazy. But, I wanted them to do it, because it helped me. And, at the end, he didn’t look that scary.” – Jacob Tremblay on how he’s trained into being able to act against scary things like a Predator

– Shane Black hired the actors first before really defining them in the script and then had them all work to develop their own backstory, while using a lot of improv on set to find the best interactions between them

“I like a little vegetables with my meat. It's good to feel like you're commenting on the state of whatever the hell is going on. I don't know, man. I'm hoping we have a return to the '70s when people were interested in the shit going on in our world. All those great films… that's why they were made because people were interested. Then they lost interest and they just wanted to see cute little aliens and sharks and shit.” – Thomas Jane on the depth of the film and the characters

– Boyd Holbrook plays Quinn McKenna, a former soldier turned mercenary who is the father to Jacob Tremblay’s character and the estranged husband of Yvonne Strahovski’s character

– Holbrook’s McKenna had a run-in with an “alien” and thus is interrogated, before being put on the same bus with “The Loonies”. They want to keep a lid on what he saw, although putting him on the bus, which is taking the men to a locked-down VA hospital, opens him up to an opportunity to lead them on the adventure that unfolds

– Shane Black had the 1987 film on repeat on the production office for two weeks while the actors trained for their roles

“Well I think the dynamic of this is going to be… when people talk about reinventing, and I think Christopher Nolan is really the only person that's really taken a franchise that people love and give it a complete freshness, I think that's what Shane is doing with this. Taking elements that are already exist, pre-existing, in the past franchise, and reinventing them. For example, the Loonies. He's given and designed this great group of guys who are so distinct.” – Boyd Holbrook

– Trevante Rhodes plays Nebraska, a Vet who lost all of his men in combat and is struggling with that, while finding resolution in teaming up with Holbrook’s McKenna to help find his son.

– Olivia Munn is playing an evolutionary biologist named Casey Brackett who has been on the CIA’s radar as a specialist in that arena. She’s brought in when the Predators resurface in an effort to understand and combat them

– Thomas Jane plays Baxley, a former Marine with OCD, who served with Keegan Michael Key’s Coyle in the military. Coyle was involved in a friendly-fire incident that left only Baxley alive and they struggle to come to terms with that and each other

“Predator hit me at the perfect time. Me and my buddies were 13. It was a bullseye. That and Terminator, RoboCop… that was our time. Those movies hit us hard. They were really strong films. I don't know if you guys remember this, but when Predator came out there was none of that shit in the fuckin' trailer. It was like a war movie. It was called Predator and you just kind of went and saw it. There wasn't any internet or nothin' like that. You friends just go “Dude, you gotta go see it.” They didn't give it away for you because people respected that back in the day. There was no such thing as a “spoiler alert,” you know? It was pretty badass, I gotta tell you. It was a great time.” – Thomas Jane on seeing the ’87 Predator as a kid

– Keegan-Michael Key plays Coyle, the “bigmouth” of “The Loonies” and chock full of one-liners.

“Oh, God. If you told child me that I'd grow up to be in a Predator movie I would have fainted and had a contusion and wouldn't have been able to be an actor.” – Keegan Michael Key on getting cast in THE PREDATOR

– Alfie Allen plays Lynch, a former Army soldier that joined the Foreign Legion. Like the rest of “The Loonies” he’s dealing with the residual effects of years at war and carries a special ability in sleight of hand, which he utilizes with card tricks

“There is something Shane possesses that I really enjoy… there's always a nice, sly meta quality. Like at the end of The Last Boy Scout he's like “Come on, man. It's the '90s. You blow him away and say something cool as shit.” This picture contains a little bit of that as well as some great referential stuff… not just to the original movie, but to Predator 2 and every other movie in the franchise, including the Alien Vs Predator franchise. It pulls pieces from all of the movies. The way he references the movies is really clever, especially if you're a huge Predator fan and I'm a huuuuuge fan of this universe.” – Keegan-Michael Key on how Shane Black ties THE PREDATOR into the rest of the franchise

– A Predator ship was built in pieces (which we visited on set) and will play a key role in one of the film’s sequences

– The film is absolutely an R-rated film

– There are “Predator dogs” in this film, much like in Robert Rodriguez’s PREDATORS, although they will be a bit different in appearance with pitbulls being used as their main model

– Original Predator effects creators Tom Woodruff Jr., Alec Gillis and ADI worked on the Predator design again for this film

– There will be other creatures in the film, although they would not disclose what kind

– Brian Prince and Kyle Strauts are playing The Predator in the film

“This is definitely a Shane Black movie, there’s no question about it. Which are the movies I love. I’m excited about it.” – VFX Supervisor Jonathan Rothbart

THE PREDATOR invades theaters on September 14th. If you want to dive even deeper into the film, check out the Shane Black piece HERE.