Did you ever think to hear that Disney is going to reboot the Predator franchise? If your jaw isn’t hanging down it might mean that you’ve already accepted that the Mouse House is in charge now and is dictating how certain franchises are going to go since the Fox merger made it possible for the Alien and Predator franchises to fall under the ever-widening Disney umbrella, meaning that it’s very possible that Disneyfying the Predator could be what’s coming in the future. What’s that mean though? Does it mean less blood and guts, less horror, less action? Bob Iger has already determined that the reboot won’t be toned down, but if you believe that then let’s recall how PC the MCU has been for the last decade and how much of what people were hoping for from the hard-hitting comic book heroes and villains has been altered in a very serious way since Thanos became a soft-spoken teddy bear compared to his comic book counterpart, and much of what’s gone on in the MCU has been so ridiculously toned-down that it’s easy to think that the next phase or two of the MCU will be akin to a giant tickle party compared to what happens in the comic books. But now that the Predator is being looked at by the Mouse House it’s enough to make a person shake their head and wonder if anyone’s going to come along that will be able to take a risk and create something that will attract the fans the way this franchise used to.
Why would there be an issue with Disney taking on something like this? For one, they’re not really known for creating R-rated movies, and if the Predator or Alien franchises go PG-13 one can just imagine how much will be taken out and what this will do to the overall story. There’s enough implied threat in both franchises, but it’s the rough and tumble, gritty action and pulse-pounding splashes of red that draw a lot of people since these are violent aliens that don’t get along with each other or with humans. Okay, so maybe the predators do tend to see humans as allies every now and then, but more often than not they view them as prey to be hunted and skinned, either before or after they yank their spinal columns and skulls from their bodies. Imagine Disney trying to show that kind of stuff and then realize there’s probably no way it’s going to happen. Whether Iger is telling the truth or not it’s fair to state that Disney isn’t going to treat the Predator or Alien franchises the way that fans are wanting to see and it’d be better if they sold them to those that could do something with them or bring in someone to collaborate. It could still be owned by Disney but be represented by someone else that would be able to justify the horror and gore that people are hoping to see.
Obviously the last Predator movie kind of failed to inspire a lot of people since it didn’t really get that good of a review and it certainly didn’t hold up to the first movie, or the second one. But there are so many people holding the first movie up as the gold standard that they forgot that Predators, starring Adrien Brody, wasn’t that bad and did bring a new dynamic to the story while keeping things more or less the same as the first movie. The group being hunted were either fighters or warriors, apart from the psychotic doctor that was brought along, and the predators were hunting them down, only this time on an alien planet and with alien dogs and traps set all over the place. This movie failed to inspire a lot of people as well, but it was actually fairly well done and offered a new look at the whole predator race since it indicated that there were ‘wolfish’ types and ‘dog’ types among them, creating a dynamic among the species that was kind of fun to think about since it kind of made the story a little deeper and a lot more interesting.
But if there’s one reason not to want Disney to reboot the Predator franchise, it’s that Disney tends to pad everything as much as possible so as to make it marketable to everyone, including kids. Predator isn’t a kids’ story, it wasn’t made that way, to begin with, it wasn’t marketed that way, and it isn’t designed for kids. Anything other than a hard R-rated movie with the same kind of grit and gore is going to upset quite a few fans and possibly alienate an entire fanbase, even if the profits continue to roll in. Disney is going for this obviously, but it feels as though it might be reaching too far this time.
Follow Us
