Shane Black's The Predator Getting Official Prequel Novel

Screen Rant

By Padraig Cotter

Published Jun 12, 2018

Shane Black's The Predator will receive a prequel novel dubbed Hunters and Hunted that will fill in the backstory of the new sequel.

Shane Black's The Predator will receive an official prequel novel titled Hunters And Hunted. The Predator franchise has been on ice for nearly a decade following the Robert Rodriguez produced Predators, but Shane Black's latest sequel is aiming to relaunch the series in a major way. This isn't the director's first tussle with the titular hunter either; he played Hawkins in the 1987 original, the first onscreen victim of the alien hunter.

The Predator will see a team of war veterans taking on the creatures in a small town, and learning the hunters have been splicing and upgrading their abilities with creatures from other planets. Boyd Holbrook will play a sniper who survived a previous encounter with the Predators, while Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane and Keegan-Michael Key co-star.

The Predator also features actor Jake Busey as the son of Predator 2's Peter Keyes, who was played by Busey's real-life father Gary. Keyes headed up a government organization dedicated to tracking down and capturing a Predator with the aim of studying it and its technology, and it seems part of the new movie will deal with that group. Now a new prequel novel from Titan Books (via AVP Galaxy) will explore the backstory of The Predator, and the group headed up by Jake Busey and Sterling K. Brown's characters.

Here's the synopsis:

For centuries Earth has been visited by warlike creatures that stalk mankind’s finest warriors. Their goals unknown, these deadly hunters kill their prey and depart as invisibly as they arrived, leaving no trace other than a trail of bodies.

When Roger Elliott faced such a creature during the Vietnam War, he didn’t expect to survive. Nor did he expect that, decades later, he would train the Reavers, a clandestine strike force attached to Project Stargazer. Their mission: to capture one of the creatures, thus proving its existence, disassembling its tech, and balancing the odds between the HUNTERS AND HUNTED.

Tie-in material for movies, TV shows and video games can be a fun way to expand the mythology and explore new story avenues. Project Stargazer is said to play a big role in The Predator, so hopefully Hunters And Hunted will answer any lingering questions fans may have about the origins of the group. That said, not all tie-ins add much to their franchises; for instance, a prequel novel for Alien: Covenant titled Origins neglected to feature any of the iconic creatures within the main storyline, and dealt with a rather unexciting attempt to sabotage the launch of the title ship by a terrorist group.

The Predator recently completed three weeks of reshoots, apparently to make the tone of the film a little more serious after test audiences found an early cut too humorous. Fox certainly appears willing to put its full marketing might behind this big budget, R-rated relaunch, and with Black's talent for action, there's every reason to believe The Predator will be a fun time at the movies.

More: The Predator Features Redesigned Hell-Hounds And Other Creatures

The Predator: Hunters And Hunted novel will be published July 31.

Source: Titan Books (via AVP Galaxy)