'Prey' First Look Takes the Predator Franchise Back in Time
The franchise of Predator is reborn with the upcoming Hulu Original movie, Prey. The series began in 1987 with John McTiernan’s Predator, written by John and Jim Thomas. Their original idea of a hyper-intelligent, militant alien spawned three sequels, various spin-offs in different forms (comics, books, video games), and a crossover series with the Alien franchise.
Prey will be the franchise’s first prequel feature film and will take place in the Comanche Nation in the 1700s. The Comanche are a tribe of Native Americans in the Southern Plains area of the United States. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the film takes place, the Comanche tribe was primarily located in northwestern Texas. They were a tribe of hunters that subsisted mostly on bison.
Given the tribe’s hunting ability, it’s no surprise why the Comanche were chosen to be the focal point of Prey. This is a masterful tribe of human hunters pitted against one of the most violent and technologically advanced alien lifeforms. Naru (Amber Midthunder) is the film’s main character. She’s a fierce hunter in her tribe and will do anything to protect her people. Their camp is attacked by a mysterious force, so Naru takes it upon herself to search out the vicious predator. Despite being not as technologically advanced as the Predator, Naru is more than willing to go toe-to-toe for the sake of saving her community.
Dan Trachtenberg is at the helm to direct Prey. The action-thriller genre is not anything new for Trachtenberg. His past directing credits include the pilot episode of Amazon Prime’s ultra-violent hit show, The Boys, the Playtest episode of Black Mirror, and the best offering in the Cloverfield franchise: 10 Cloverfield Lane. Prey writer Patrick Aison has had a hand in quite a few different thriller series. He has writing credits on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Treadstone, and Wayward Pines. Playing the role of the Predator is professional basketball player turned actor, Dane DiLiegro. His biggest credit to date was a small role on American Horror Story in season five. Given his 6 ft. 9 in. height, it’s no surprise that he plays the intimidating militant alien.
Not only is Prey exciting for this return to a longstanding franchise, but this film also marks a watershed moment for Native representation. The film will be offered on Hulu with spoken Comanche as a language option and a Comanche-subtitled version. This is the first instance of a feature-length film in the direct-to-streaming era that is offered entirely in Comanche.
The representation goes beyond the language, too. The filmmakers of Prey were adamant in having a Comanche expert involved. Jhane Myers is a Native Comanche producer for the film. The cast is also made up of Native and First Nation talent, some as complete newcomers to the world of acting. Other actors have credits that include Roswell, New Mexico, The Journey Home, and Tribal. This decision to highlight a group of people and to actually seek out people who are part of that group marks an exciting moment for representation.