Director Dan Trachtenberg has debunked the rumored title for the new Predator movie. The franchise started with the simple title of Predator with the 1987 original film. Despite the series being named after the creature, the first entry follows a military leader (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team on a rescue mission in the Central American rainforest. While there, they encounter a deadly creature with technology that has far surpassed that of humans. The sequels are titled Predator 2, Predators, and The Predator, respectively. Two crossover films were also released titled Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
It was previously announced that a fifth installment would be released in the form of a prequel. The story follows the Predator species' first encounter with the planet Earth. The news has been confirmed that the movie will have a female lead. The initial rumored title for the upcoming Predator film was said to be Skull. Trachtenberg previously directed 10 Cloverfield Lane and will now be directing the next movie in the Predator franchise from a screenplay written by Patrick Aison.
Trachtenberg debunked the rumored title in an Instagram post. The picture shows the slate from 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was under the production title of Valencia. He wrote about how a title can be reported, but sometimes it ends up being just the production code name that's used during production. The post ends with an ellipses that alludes to all readers need to know. See below for the Instagram post:
Click Here For the Original Post
Before 10 Cloverfield Lane was released, the film went under the production code name Valencia to avoid people knowing that another movie in the Cloverfield franchise was being made. When audiences discovered the real title to the movie, there was naturally a lot of hype surrounding it. In the case of the new Predator film, producers John Davis and John Fox supposedly unveiled the title of Skull to press. However, it's more likely that they were simply using the working title that was used during production to refer to it.
The title of Skull makes sense, given that Predators collect them as trophies from their victims. However, it doesn't exactly fit in with the remainder of the titles within the franchise. It's likely that the studio would want to keep the word "Predator" in the title somehow for marketing purposes, so perhaps there will be a subtitle to differentiate it from the previous installments. While Trachtenberg's Instagram post doesn't directly talk about the new Predator film in any way, it's very strongly suggested that he's referring to the press surrounding it. Hopefully a confirmed title will be released at some point soon.
Source: Dan Trachtenberg