Dan Trachtenberg proved the fun of sending a predator back in time by setting 2022’s Prey in 1719. Now he’s sending the alien hunter on a history tour in Predator: Killer of Killers, which has a fresh trailer out today.
Co-directed by Trachtenberg and Josh Wassung, the animated anthology film features three storylines showcasing the best fighters humanity has to offer. There’s a Viking warrior and her young son on a quest to “kill the monster” and an American fighter pilot in World War II trying to convince his superiors that something inhuman is hunting the skies. Apparently Predators are as good at dogfights as they are at hand-to-hand combat.
The movie also visits feudal Japan, where the alien gets into the middle of a battle for succession between a ninja and his samurai brother. The trailer shows off The Third Floor’s beautiful and bloody animation, which is reminiscent of Blue Eye Samurai, as the predator decapitates a samurai with a sword chain, grapples a Viking underwater, and gets into a rooftop chase with a ninja. Humans throughout the timelines learn to fight the alien together, but most ominously the trailer ends by showing that the stakes aren’t just a clean death as a fighter pilot wearing a high-tech collar is dragged into an alien landscape.
Predator: Killer of Killers premieres on Hulu on June 6. Fans of the franchise will get a second helping of Trachtenberg’s work on Nov. 7 with the theatrical release of Predator: Badlands. That film will have a more traditional science-fiction setting with the twist of having the predator be the hero instead of the villain.
