TheAlienandPredatorfranchises have always felt like natural candidates for a cinematic crossover, and the potential for another shot at it has never been higher, at least not since the failure of the 2000s movies featuring the two iconic extraterrestrials. The xenomorphs oftheAlienfranchiseare described as the perfect organism, so naturally they would be the ultimate prize for the galaxy’s greatest hunters, the creatures known as Predators. After several decades of separate movies, they finally met in2004’sAlien vs. Predator, and then once more in2007’sAlien vs. Predator: Requiem.
Unfortunately, both movies were critical bombs, and despite modest box office success, plans for a third entry in the joint franchise were put on the backburner afterRequiem. Both franchises progressed forward separately, with both putting out an excellent entry within the last few years that reignited interest in each series. The tight, brutal prequelPreyproved how many more stories were left to be told across the light years and eons about the Predators, whileAlien: Romulusbrought the franchise back to its claustrophobic, terrifying roots. Naturally, talk about a crossover has picked back up in recent years.
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A New Alien Vs. Predator Movie Will “Probably” Happen
20th Century Exec Steve Asbell Provided Insight
In an interview withThe Hollywood Reporterin late 2024, 20th Century Studios executive Steve Asbell shed some light on whether a clash between the Yautja and the xenomorphs was in the works. After discussing plans surrounding thePredatorfranchise, including the upcoming moviePredator: Badlands, Asbell was asked very directly about whether audiences would get anotherAlien vs. Predatormovie. The studio exec simply said that we will “probably” see anotherAlien vs. Predatormovie, understandably drawing a tepid response from the interviewer fromThe Hollywood Reporter.
2004
$60-$70 million
$177.4 million
21%
39%
Greg and Colin Strause
2007
$40 million
$130.3 million
12%
30%
Although the two theatrical releases of the expansiveAlien vs. Predatorfranchise were eviscerated by both critics and moviegoers, there is plenty of other media that has been successful. The crossover franchise actually began as a comic book series in 1989, and much of the written material since then has been far stronger than the shoddy movies. Most of the expanded lore of theYautja culturehas been fleshed out in novels, graphic novels, and comic books, so there is plenty of source material for a new iteration ofAlien vs. Predatoron the big screen.
The New Alien Vs. Predator Would Be An Organic Crossover Between The Franchises
The Two Creatures Would Meet Within A Sensible Context
Asbell was quick to clarify that a new movie pitting Predators and xenomorphs against each other would not be a continuation of the earlier movies, and in fact wouldn’t be anything like what audiences might expect given the crossover franchise’s history. One of the key points that Asbell hit on was the organic quality of the two species' interaction, which was a big criticism of the originalAlien vs. Predatormovies. They are not even considered canon to theAlienfranchise, given that the xenomorph origins given in those movies clash with the origin described inPrometheusandAlien: Covenant.
If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.
To hear Asbell tell it, a crossover between the two franchises likely wouldn’t even be a separate and distinct movie. The “organic” crossover that he describes could mean that one of the two creatures shows up in their adversary’s movie. With multiplePredatorprojects in development andthe television seriesAlien: Earthdebuting in 2025, there are plenty of opportunities for the seeds of a crossover to be sewn.
With The Proper Buildup, Alien Vs. Predator Can Be Disney’s Answer To The Monsterverse
The Two Characters Can Parallel Godzilla And Kong
Again referring to the expandedAlien vs. Predatorfranchise as opposed to the two movies from the 2000s, there is plenty of appetite and opportunity for a shared universe between the two sci-fi icons. Given the proper amount of time and attention, Disney (who is behind 20th Century Studios) could craft a legitimate cinematic universe centered around the rivalry between the two species. Just as Legendary did with the Godzilla and King Kong properties, Disney can flesh out a series of movies or television shows that explore the two creatures' shared universe before throwing them together.
Building towards a newAlien vs. Predatormovie as opposed to just jumping into one immediately could be the secret formula to effectively combine theAlienandPredatorfranchises.
Admittedly, they shouldn’t follow the Legendary game plan to the letter. It would be fairly jarring to see the perfect killing machines that are the xenomorphs tag-teaming an enemy with a fully-armed and lethal Predator, so there’s no reason to go in that direction unless there seems to be real audience appetite for it. But building towards a newAlien vs. Predatormovie (or series of movies) as opposed to just jumping into one immediately could be the secret formula to effectively combine theAlienandPredatorfranchises.
