Predator: Badlands Director Seeks “Holy Grail” of Arnold Schwarzenegger Franchise Return
There have been "conversations" about bringing Arnie back into the Predator fold.
Arnold Schwarzenegger could make a return to the Predator franchise in the future and reprise his role as Dutch, according to Predator: Badlands producer Ben Rosenblatt.
Rosenblatt has confirmed that director Dan Trachtenberg, who helms the latest franchise installment, has met up with Arnie about appearing in a possible sequel. Dutch briefly popped up in the animated series Predator: Killer of Killers recently, but Arnie hasn’t made a live-action comeback since he starred in the original 1987 movie. However, the team behind Predator: Badlands are still keen to make it happen.
“Obviously, the holy grail of Predator movies would be getting Arnold back in there,” Rosenblatt said this week (via Deadline). “And it’s always been something in the back of our minds that it would be really great to see him come back to this franchise that he’s made iconic, and that’s made him iconic.”
Rosenblatt added, “He’s been really wonderful. Arnold and Dan have met a couple of times now. He’s been really interested in what we’re doing, he’s a real fan of what we’ve done so far, from what I understand. And we’re really excited. After Predator: Badlands comes out, we’ll see and have more conversations. Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to do something with Arnold, because that would be awesome.”
Predator: Badlands flips the script on other franchise outings. Instead of humans hunting Predators, the film follows a young Predator outcast named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster‑Koloamatangi) who teams up with Thia (Elle Fanning). It also includes a different kind of Alien crossover element, as Thia is a synth created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation.
Director Dan Trachtenberg has explained that while the movie is a crossover with Alien in some respects, thanks to the corporate tie-ins, it isn’t a full-blown Predator vs. Alien mash-up, as he didn’t want to lean into the tendency to be “grabbing all the action figures and smashing them together” like other crossover movies do.
Predator: Badlands is set for release on November 7, with no Arnie… this time.
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Kirsten Howard has paid their dues. Yes sir, the check is in the mail.