It seems the never-made Predators 2 would have ended with a canonical connection between Predator and the Alien franchise, according to Predators writer Alex Litvak. The potential sequel never progressed beyond the early planning stages, and both franchises ultimately went in different directions with 2012’s Prometheus and 2018’s The Predator.
Even before the first Alien vs. Predator film released in 2004, the two sci-fi horror icons seemed locked in a perpetual orbit. While fundamentally different in nature – predators being expert hunters given to solo or small group operations, and xenomorphs hatching in massive, sprawling colonies – genre fans have frequently compared the two. Alien vs. Predator and its sequel, Requiem, finally brought the creatures face-to-face, but the canonical status of those films has always been highly questionable, especially given the more recent entries in the Alien franchise.
In a new interview on the AvPGalaxy podcast, Litvak discussed his plans for Predators 2 at length, including an intended ending that would have officially crossed over with Alien. The movie would have seen Adrien Brody’s Royce and Alice Braga’s Isabelle gather a group of other hunted survivors to board and overtake the Predator transport ship. After fighting their way through the spacecraft and piloting themselves back to earth, the cast would have been greeted by Alien’s famous Colonial Marines, revealing that the film actually took place in the far future.
“At the end of the day we win, we get back to Earth, we land and we realize it’s the future! All along we thought this was happening now, but what if these guys have been on ice for 300 years? The hatch opens, and the Space [Colonial] Marines come in! That was how we merge the two worlds – the Alien and Predator world finally merge and bring the Space Marines into the story.”
With Ridley Scott having reclaimed the helm of the Alien franchise over the past decade with Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant, the series’ canonical timeline seems to have strayed even farther from a logical connection to AvP. That might be disappointing for fans who’d like to see another big-screen showdown between the titans of space action/horror, though the original crossover films are far from universally beloved. While Prometheus was a controversial return to the Alien universe and The Predator wasn’t exactly a critical success, reception to Covenant was generally favorable, leaving the door open for more interesting projects in Scott’s expanding Alien-verse.
Perhaps these divergent directions are the best options for Alien and Predator. After all, the two began as isolated stories, and they remain very distinct in style, with the latter existing as a more straight-forward sci-fi action series, while Alien continues adding elements of Lovecraftian Horror. The AvP movies are still fun to revisit, but they’re far from the influential masterpieces of the early films in their respective franchises. Still, it’s interesting to hear one possibility for how another crossover almost took shape.
Source: AvPGalaxy