“Predator: Killer of Killers” Filmmakers on the Series’ First Animated Film and New Predator Designs

A few days before it debuts on Hulu, American Cinematheque and Beyond Fest teamed up for a Los Angeles screening of 20th Century Studios’ new animated movie Predator: Killer of Killers, followed by a Q&A with Dan Trachtenberg (director/producer), Josh Wassung (co-director), and Micho Robert Rutare (screenwriter). The sixth film in the core Predator franchise – not counting the two Alien vs. Predator movies – Killer of Killers’ existence was kept quiet until just a few months ago, when it was revealed Trachtenberg had two entirely different new Predator films both releasing this year, not just Predator: Badlands, which opens in theaters this fall.

(L-R) Dan Trachtenberg, Micho Robert Rutare and Josh Wassung discuss ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’ at the Egyptian Theater

Killer of Killers is an anthology film, focusing on three different Predators on the hunt in three different eras across Earth’s history. In 841 A.D., a massive Predator faces off with Vikings; in 1629, a battle between Samurai and Ninja escalates when a Predator enters the mix; and in the midst of World War II, in 1941, an American pilot discovers the enemy aircraft targeting he and the men he’s fighting alongside is unlike anything they’ve seen before.  

Having revitalized the Predator franchise as director on 2022’s Prey, Trachtenberg now seems to have truly taken on a guiding role in the series, which began in 1987. Trachtenberg explained that the conversations that led to both Predator: Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands began shortly after Prey’s success and that quickly three ideas began to coalesce – the story he’ll be telling in Badlands, a story Trachtenberg doesn’t want to discuss just yet, and then the idea of “What if we did more with what we opened the door for Prey, which was different time periods.”

In general, Trachtenberg said he liked the idea of not doing an expected straight follow-up to Prey, remarking, “I think sometimes when a cool movie comes out, the sequel is just the sequel to the cool thing, as opposed to being a cool thing in and of itself. And so I was really trying to figure out what could we do that would be unexpected and would be an awesome entry in the Predator franchise.”

As they decided to make this look at other eras via animation – a first for the series – recruiting Wassung as Co-Director was notable. Wassung and the company he co-founded, The Third Floor, have done Previs animated storyboard work on a ton of huge projects for years now, including Iron Man 3, Deadpool 2, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and much more, but this is Wassung’s feature film directorial debut and the first full animated feature from Third Floor. Trachtenberg worked with Wassung and Third Floor on Prey and said “When you think of what storytelling is and what directing is, it really does start with the imaginative stuff that you come up with in previs and Josh has helped me realize so many of the things that I wanted to do, and has come up with his own awesome things that I get to take credit for. So I was really eager to continue our collaboration, and Josh was really eager to say, ‘Dude, I know that world and everyone just sees us as this company that’s a part of the early conceptual stages, but I really feel like we’re ready to make a movie.’”

At first, there were some conversations about doing Badlands as an animated series, jumping between different time periods each episode, but it was Wassung who suggested they make it an anthology film instead. Trachtenberg praised Rutar for giving each of the stories its own distinct arc in the limited time allotted. Rutar said the time periods had already been chosen when he was hired but he certainly had no issue with that. Or as he put it, “I was happy! I’m like, ****ing Vikings, Ninja and Samurai, World War II fights… I don’t have any notes on those three! That’s what’s great about working with Dan, is that he finds the right vessel and the right frame. And so, as a writer, it’s like, ‘Great, this is my sandbox. I love this sandbox!’ What an amazing treat.”

Trachtenberg said he was particularly happy when they realized they could turn the World War II story into an aerial battle where the Predator only uses his ship to hunt, describing it as “An epiphany, because it was hard to figure out. It’s like, is this [Predator] just taking out Nazis or what? And then it was like, ‘Whoa, wait, there’s another thing we haven’t done…’” Or as Wassung put it, the idea became “What if it’s Predator, but in the sky, and the ship was the Predator?”

Meanwhile, the Ninja and Samurai story (titled “The Sword”) stands out for how it’s done with almost no dialogue, something Trachtenberg noted “I’ve always been obsessed with trying to pull off; if we could tell a story that’s purely visual. And that’s actually the genesis of Prey, was like, maybe there’s no spoken word? But then we started writing some words, and we enjoyed the words.” With “The Sword,” there was actually a much more dialogue-heavy version initially and Wassung recalled “Dan and Micho were developing that story, and it was all written out, and we actually had a cut with all the dialogue in. But then there was the moment of ‘Let’s try this’ and we ripped out all the dialogue. And so a huge shout out to the previs artists and the animators, because they really had to take the weight of putting all that story into the performances and into the cameras and make sure you understood what was happening.”

Then there were the designs of the three new Predators we meet in the film, all of whom are visually distinct. Trachtenberg explained that coming up with new Predator designs is done in collaboration with Alec Gillis, a longtime creature effects expert with deep ties to both the Alien and Predator franchises beginning with his work alongside the late, great Stan Winston (creator of the original Predator design) on 1986’s Aliens. Said Trachtenberg, “There’s something [Gillis] understands about the visual language of Predator that was always so hard for me to articulate…. I really spent a lot of time with him, iterating on tons of new Predator designs,” noting that because this film was animated, they really wanted to vary the looks of the Predators.

After having a bunch of different options on the table, they then chose which would work best for each story, deciding, for instance, how the biggest, most hulking Predator would battle the Viking characters – which was represented by the life-size version of that Predator Gillis built, which greeted us entering the screening.

As for the bald Predator, lacking the signature dreadlocks, Trachtenberg liked the idea of making him the one in the World War II story who sticks to piloting his ship, remarking “Maybe there’s a story there, and he doesn’t need those extra sensory dreads just engaging purely in his ship.”

Wassung added that including a bald Predator was something Gillis had long wanted to do thanks to working on earlier Predator films, explaining “When they were getting dressed [to film], putting the suit on, the dreads go on last. And so he saw that look all the time. He’s like, ‘One day, I want to make a Predator without those dreads like that.’ And then we put in the animated movie.”

Trachtenberg said it was very hectic but gratifying making both Killer of Killers and Badlands at the same time, recalling, “We were in New Zealand [filming Badlands], riding to set with laptops up looking at a sync sketch and a zoom with the teams here and all over the world and the organization [working on Killer of Killers],” while giving a big thanks to Ben Rosenblatt, who produced both films.

As for Badlands, Trachtenberg preferred to hold back details for now beyond the teaser trailer fans have now seen, but was clearly very happy with how it turned out, exclaiming, “Badlands is ****ing awesome.” He also added that despite that teaser trailer setting the table for the film, “Badlands is not what you expect and it is a full meal just like this [Killer of Killers]. I’m stoked.”

Predator: Killer of Killers debuts June 6 on Hulu.

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