Prey is a prequel to Predator, isn’t it? The director says it’s complicated

Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Prey, has explained whether the upcoming Predator movie is a prequel. Prey director Trachtenberg revealed exclusively to TechRadar that he does not refer to the film as a Predator prequel. According to Trachtenberg, there’s a significant reason he doesn’t consider the upcoming Hulu movie a prequel.

“I personally don’t consider it a prequel,” Trachtenberg said. As far as technicalities go, yes. When we initially announced [Prey], it was implied that we were going to tell the origin story of the Predator.

Prey is what kind of movie is it, then? It turns out that the answer is much more complicated than we anticipated. Prey, to be released on Disney Plus in territories outside the US, is technically a prequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 Predator movie.

In contrast, Trachtenberg confirmed that it does not chart the origins of the Yautja – the Predator species’ actual name – the way Prometheus did for face-huggers and xenomorphs. It is important to understand how these creatures evolved into the face-huggers and xenomorphs we see in other Alien movies, or how their prototypes were created.

How would we define Prey as a movie? In spite of the fact that it takes place before the events of the first Predator film, which was released in 1987, it isn’t an origin story per se. This film could be regarded as a prequel – that is, a film set before previous entries in the franchise but released after them. 

However, that only further muddies the waters. In other words, it seems to be a prequel to the Predator films. If it doesn’t take place in a different timeline, that is. Time travel movies, in particular, have started to meddle with their linear timelines, either to reinvent the franchise or to tell new stories with characters we’ve already seen. 

Among the most recent Star Trek films are those starring Chris Pine as Commander Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. As part of the Kelvin Timeline, the creative team behind 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek: Into Darkness rewrote previous Star Trek films to avoid issues with characters such as William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Kirk and Spock.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) have also experimented with nonlinear or complex timeline formulas – read our Marvel movies in order and DCEU movies in order guides for more information.

When asked if Prey exists in a separate timeline from the four Predator films that preceded it, Trachtenberg wasn’t sure if Disney and 20th Century Studios view it as part of the same narrative. According to him, the movie is set 300 years in the past, so technically it should be considered alongside those movies. I’m not sure if it’s a separate timeline, but I could be wrong.”

It is arguably the best and simplest way to describe Prey despite Trachtenberg’s resistance to using the word “prequel”. Otherwise, we’ll spend all day debating the issue. Find out what sets the latest Predator movie apart from its predecessors by reading more Prey-related content.

Check out our list of the best sci-fi movies ever, or watch one of these five top-tier shows while we await the return of Apple TV Plus’ flagship sci-fi series Foundation. You can read our spoiler-free review of Prey later today on TechRadar.

Check back later this week for our exclusive, in-depth interview with Trachtenberg, Amber Midthunder, and executive producer Jhane Meyers. On Friday, August 5, Prey will be available on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus outside the US.

Source: TechRadar

Robert Poirrer

Robert Poirrer is a contributing author who covers Hollywood latest movie releases and web series for the MovieThop website. He has a decade of experience in writing movies based articles for numerous renowned media outlets. He is excellent at creating unique content based on emerging trends in a variety of categories especially entertainment, movies and lifestyle. When not writing articles you could find Robert enjoying mountain biking trips with his friends. He graduated in English Literature from North Carolina State University.