One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most iconic characters, Dutch from Predator fame, could be returning to the franchise in live-action, thanks to Dan Trachtenberg and his revival of the dreaded hunter. It’s worth noting that Dutch is still in the public consciousness for multiple reasons. To begin, the original Predator remains timeless. Second, Dutch makes a cameo appearance in the extended ending of Predator: Killer of Killers, and he’s a playable character in the 2020 video game Predator: Hunting Grounds. Thankfully, instead of recasting the character, Arnold Schwarzenegger could get caked up in mud again in a future installment of the franchise.
Speaking with Collider, Trachtenberg said he met Schwarzenegger, and their exchange was promising: “I met Arnold, [he said] ‘You think I’d get I’ll be back yelled at me more, but it’s actually Get to the chopper!’ So he’s well aware of the franchise’s staying power.” Trachtenberg added that Arnold is excited to rejoin the Predator franchise, knowing that its glory is restored thanks to Trachtenberg’s Prey.
Trachtenberg also said Schwarzenegger “was excited to talk about what else we could do. Because there’s so much more story to tell now — you could tell how [Dutch and Naru] were captured, or what happens when they de-ice. Many possibilities.”
Up next for Dan Trachtengberg and the Predator franchise is Predator: Badlands. The upcoming film is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Elle Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. “In general, I’m always looking for: what could happen only in this movie?” Trachtenberg said, adding that the movie is “kind of a buddy-comedy” with Dek and Thia. “Prey was a solo survival tale; this is a relationship story.“
The director is eager for audiences to root for Dek. “That feels like a big idea, not just within Predator, but in sci-fi generally,” he said earlier this year. “In most sci-fi universes, the ‘creatures’ are either bad guys or sidekicks. In [Badlands] it’s: ‘What if you were with the creature on this crazy mission to prove itself, seeing everything through its eyes?’“
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