Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Reportedly in Talks to Return to the Predator Universe

Throughout the entire Predator franchise, only one figure rose to greater popularity than the monster itself: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two of the action hero’s greatest lines (“Get to the chopper!”, “If it bleeds, we can kill it”) hail from the 1987 film. Yet, Schwarzenegger has yet to reprise his role as Dutch—the original Predator killer—in any of Predator’s seven live-action sequels.

Hopefully, that’s all about to change. According to Predator: Badlands producer Ben Rosenblatt, the 78-year-old actor is very interested in returning to the role. Schwarzenegger reportedly met with director Dan Trachtenberg multiple times already, and he’s expressed his love for the rebooted franchise since Trachtenberg's Prey (2002). From their conversations so far, it sounds like the actor’s return is imminent.

“Obviously, the holy grail of Predator movies would be getting Arnold back in there,” Rosenblatt told Deadline at the premiere of Predator: Badlands in Los Angeles, California on Monday. “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.”

“After Predator: Badlands comes out, we’ll see and have more conversations,” Rosenblatt said. “Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to do something with Arnold, because that would be awesome.”

Schwarzenegger’s character appeared briefly for an animated cameo in Predator: Killer of Killers earlier this year. He also provided some voice acting work for the Predator: Hunting Grounds video game in 2020. But if Schwarzenegger returns in the flesh for the first time in the next Predator film, he might find himself also joining another classic monster franchise: Alien.

Predator: Badlands makes obvious connections to the character’s history, fighting his fellow space monster in Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) by including one of the Alien franchise’s most prominent robotics companies—Weyland Yutani. Weyland Yutani also appears in the recent Alien: Earth TV series, which may signal another battle between the two foes heading our way. (It also helps that Disney now owns both franchises after acquiring the rights to the 20^th Century Studios catalog in 2017.)

“Sometimes there’s a tendency for a 'versus' movie to be grabbing all the action figures and smashing them together, and I thought it was really cool to just take an element from one franchise and fuse it with this one,” Trachtenberg told Deadline for now. Whether fans will see a true crossover in the future? Well, something tells me Schwarzenegger wouldn’t mind adding another famous movie monster to his collection.