Prey's new Predator actor, Dane DiLiegro, recently detailed how the new Predator design was created for the film. Set in 1719, DiLiegro stars as the iconic alien in the franchise's thrilling prequel. When Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman living on the American Great Plains, comes face-to-face with the ruthless alien hunter, she must track down and kill the creature before it kills her and wipes out her tribe.
As a result of the film being set nearly 300 years prior to the original Predator film, much of the Predator's design and technology has been changed. The alien no longer sports his recognizable metal bio-helmet and instead wears a helmet forged from the skull of a long dead creature. This causes the mandibles of the creature to be exposed, allowing for a more expressive creature. Also, the iconic shoulder-mounted plasmascaster has been removed with Prey's hunter using a laser-guided dart system.
DiLiegro recently sat down with Screen Rant and detailed how the Predator's new design was created for the franchise's latest film, Prey. The actor explained how the film's director, Dan Trachtenberg, guided their process for realizing the new version of the monster, distancing the design from the original 1987 "wrestler-style" Predator and making it more "dynamic." Read what DiLiegro revealed below.
"Dan gave us a couple of keywords initially: feral animalistic, wild, primal. So I knew we were kind of departing from the stand-up, humanoid, WWF wrestler, Dan did not want that 1987 wrestler-style Predator, he wanted something dynamic, he wanted something lean, that was more violent and quicker. But the start of all that is the design and the builds of this character and what Tom and Alec did, they really had their hands full, because now they have to design a suit that can stand up to the physicality in the way this character can move. That's a tricky design, because the more you go into that movement-dynamic character, the more the suit has to articulate and there's folds, you you have to prevent from happening. Things that we shot in the middle of day, in broad daylight, it's very easy for things to be exposed. And the way they put the suit together with newer technologies today, compared to in the past, it was a synergy of a lot of creativity and technology. You saw the final result; it looks great."
The new "animalistic" design truly fits within story and themes of the film as the main character Naru is attempting to prove herself within her tribe through a hunting ritual. She tracks down a massive bear to secure a kill that would stand her apart from her capable older brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers), however her plans go awry when the bear proved too much for Naru to handle, with the bear nearly killing her. However, the hunt was interrupted by the Predator setting her on a collision course with her new target. The animal-like appearance and movement of the alien directly related to Naru's goal to complete her hunting ritual and finally gain the recognition and status within the tribe she deserved.
Prey ended up being a return to form for the franchise, one that has seen its share of less-than-stellar entries. The Predator's redesign and physicality undoubtedly contributed to the success of the film and likely helped make Prey become the most-watched Hulu Original debut on the streaming service as well as the highest-rated Predator film in the franchise's history. With a Prey sequel still left up in the air, audiences will have to wait to see if there is another Predator redesign in the near future.