After two divisive and ultimately failed attempts to revitalize the Predator franchise in the 2010s, 20th Century Studios found its stride with 2022’s Prey. While sadly locked to Hulu as a result of the Disney-Fox merger, that film was met with such a strong reception that it gave the sci-fi horror franchise the boost it’d been needing. Now, the studio is keeping that momentum going with two projects in 2025: Predator: Badlands in November, and this week’s animated Killer of Killers.
Beyond their being linked by returning Prey director Dan Trachtenberg (co-directing here with Josh Wassung, and working off a script by Micho Robert Rutale from a story by Rutale and Trachtenberg), this future trilogy seems to have been made with the intent of bringing a specific set of ideas and concepts for the Predator franchise to fruition. On its own, that’s not surprising, as the franchise tried this before with its 2018 film, and its sibling series Alien also recently made this same play with 2024’s Alien: Romulus.
What makes all the difference is how much Trachtenberg, Wassung, and Rutare make an earnest effort to let Killer of Killers function as its own work that’s informed by, but not reliant on, its predecessor, even as the two can’t help but be in conversation with one another. And as with Prey, the end result is a project that succeeds at nearly everything it sets out to do, so much that it’s a shame it can’t get the full, theatrical rollout something as fun and sublime as this almost definitely deserves.
Like prior films, Killer focuses on a cast of humans enacting violence on their fellow man just before a technologically superior alien from another world suddenly arrives looking to shed some blood. Whereas Prey took its time showing how Naru and its Predator both moved through the space of the 1719 Great Plains, Killer is more fast-paced. This is a movie that prioritizes action and gore over tension, but that’s not as much of a betrayal as it sounds. That action can often be tense, both in how viscerally violent it is and in how relentless the Predators are in pursuit of their targets. It helps that co-directors Trachtenberg and Wassung have brought over a key part of what made that previous film such a delight: the continuously shifting power dynamics between the hunters and the poor souls they’ve set their sights on.
© 20th Century StudiosEach of the three stories—841 AD’s “The Shield;” “The Sword,” set in 1629 Japan; and “The Bullet,” set in WWII’s North Pacific—run 20 minutes and play out more or less as you’d expect based on their setting. That predictability and narrative slightness ends up working in Killer of Killers’ favor, since main characters Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy), ninja Kenji (Louis Ozawa), and pilot John Torres (Rick Gonzalez) get just enough backstory to inform their personal plights and make them compelling even before their respective Predators enter the picture. Ursa and Kenji’s tales are more somber, not entirely unlike Naru’s in Prey.
Conversely, Torres is a considerably chattier character, and his story has more humorous beats. That has the potential to feeling like too sharp a contrast, but by the time his story comes, the film’s earned enough goodwill that it doesn’t undermine things, and the eventual payoff for what everything has built up to is satisfying and fun in its own right.
What unites the trio thematically is their ability to outwit the aliens looking to add some new spines to their collections. Predator movies have always been considered slashers where the victims are just as capable as they are helpless, and that through line continues in Killers. The film takes full advantage of its individual settings to show how the humans come to understand and quickly adapt to the Predators’ bag of tricks, and the solutions they each come up with to turn the tide of battle (or even just to get a breather) are pretty clever. The Predators themselves are a nice, diverse bunch, and while not as characterized as Prey’s Feral hunter, they have a similar curiosity and mean streak that imbues them with just enough personality.
Visually, Killer is a pretty nice movie to look at, made more impressive by this being the series’ first full foray into animation. The CG/3D art style is reminiscent of Arcane, but animated at a frame rate similar to Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, giving individual movements a particular weight. For a movie with a lot of action, 20th Century Animation and Third Floor have come up with several impressive battle scenes that’ll feel familiar but are pulled off with an impressive amount of flourish and gore that it won’t matter. (A long take involving Ursa and her raiders is just one of several fist-pumping highlights throughout.) And when it’s not showing off how bloody fights with the Predator can be, the film is showing off impressive vistas and providing such scale that it’s again a shame this can’t ever come to the big screen.
© 20th Century StudiosThe strength of its individual stories would make Killer of Killers worthwhile on its own, but its final act brings things home with one fun beat after another that feels like the team wanted to get everything they could into this project. By the time it’s laid down all the cards and revealed what everything’s all been building up to and where it could go next, it’s easy to come away impressed at how self-assured and confident it carries itself the entire time. Live-action franchises can stumble when they take exotic vacations to the world of animation, but that’s not the case here—this film’s more than got the goods and is a fine addition to the Predator’s recent resurgence.
Also starring Michael Biehn, Predator: Killer of Killers arrives June 6 on Hulu.
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