Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg has teased Arnold Schwarzenegger is “excited to talk about what else we could do” with his character Dutch in the Predator franchise.
The 78-year-old actor has only portrayed the action hero in the original 1987 movie, but after Dutch recently cameoed in Trachtenberg’s animated Hulu show Predator: Killer of Killers, the filmmaker has revealed Schwarzenegger is interested in seeing what is in store for the character.
Speaking with Empire magazine, the 44-year-old director said: “I met Arnold, and he said, ‘You’d think I get, ‘l’ll be back,’ yelled at me most, but it’s actually, ‘Get to the chopper!’
“So, he’s well aware of the franchise’s staying power. He was excited to talk about what else we could do.”
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In Predator: Killer of Killers, Dutch’s frozen body appears next to Prey protagonist Naru’s – as played by Amber Midthunder in the 2022 movie.
Following this reveal, Trachtenberg said “there’s so much story to tell now” with Dutch and Naru.
He said: “You could tell how [Dutch and Naru] were captured, or what happens when they’re de-iced. Many possibilities.”
Trachtenberg’s next project is Predator: Badlands, which will land in theaters on November 7, 2025.
The upcoming movie follows young hunter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he has been outcast from his clan and sent to a remote planet, where he forms an unlikely alliance with Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning) as the pair search for the ultimate adversary.
The director had said he wanted to make a movie “that hadn’t existed before” with Predator: Badlands.
Speaking about creating the film, he explained: “You immediately think: Prey 2.
“But with sequels, people sometimes get so caught up going, ‘This could happen next,’ they never stop to think, ‘Should it happen next?’
“Prey was special because it was this big idea that hadn’t existed before. I wanted the next thing to be that, too.”
Trachtenberg described Predator: Badlands as a “kind of buddy-comedy” between Dek and Thia – a biomechanical humanoid.
The director said: “In general, I’m always looking for: what could happen only in this movie?
“Prey was a solo survival tale; this is a relationship story.”
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