Fans of the Alien and Predator franchises have a lot to look forward to in 2025. Not only are we getting two new Predator films from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg with the live-action Predator: Badlands and the animated Hulu offering Predator: Killer of Killers, but we’re also set to receive another major entry in the Alien universe from Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley with the FX show Alien: Earth. Although these projects are not officially connected yet, fans know that Alien and Predator have a long history as part of a shared universe, with the two iconic monsters crossing paths in numerous films, comic books, and video games.
Examining the latest promotional materials for Predator: Badlands and Alien: Earth may provide clues that Disney is laying the groundwork for a new crossover between Alien and Predator. Let’s take a closer look at the developments in these franchises and why we might see AVP return to the big screen sooner rather than later.
Evil Easter Eggs
The first teaser trailer for Predator: Badlands already made some fans wonder if a new Alien vs. Predator was on its way. The trailer revealed that Elle Fanning will be playing a Weyland-Yutani synthetic who has a connection to a new Predator named Dek, who Trachtenberg confirmed will be the film’s protagonist. Although a Weyland-Yutani android being an important figure in a Predator film doesn’t necessarily mean the film is setting up a major Alien crossover–the two franchises have long since cross-pollinated enough where this reveal isn’t a huge shift in the status quo–it does take on greater significance now that we’ve received new promotional videos for Alien: Earth.
In the Gestation Complete teaser, there are multiple Easter eggs relating to Alien lore. We see the black liquid mutagen from the opening of Prometheus that is used to seed life on Earth by the Engineers. This eventually leads to an egg sac that looks remarkably similar to one attached to a wall in Alien: Romulus. Although the creature that spills out of it resembles a facehugger in shape, it appears to be mutated in new ways. This specimen is revealed to be contained on a ship resembling the Nostromo from the original film, although this vessel is called the Maginot. The creature is designated “Species 37” (a Mass Effect reference?!) and marked as having unknown DNA by the ship’s computer, MU-TH-UR. Since we know the show takes place two years prior to Alien in the series’ timeline, this indicates that Species 37 was what clued Weyland-Yutani into the Xenomorphs in the first place, since the Nostromo’s MU-TH-UR and Ash knew what it was before they landed on LV-426.
A related teaser called Crate features specimen containers, with a narrator stating that the ship “collected five different life forms from the darkest corners of the universe,” and that each one is a unique species. Although a classic Xenomorph crawls over the central crate, the fact that we’re getting five different species means the show appears to be expanding the roster of alien creatures in this universe by a wide margin. Could one of them be related to the Predators? That would certainly track with Badlands being set on an alien world where the lead Predator Dek seems to be hunting extraterrestrial monstrosities. Perhaps Elle Fanning’s android was searching for some of the specimens featured in the show? Or maybe one of these monsters will mutate into something we’ll see in Badlands or Killer of Killers. We won’t know for sure until it premieres, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s Predator DNA somewhere in Alien: Earth.
Alien and Predator’s Long, Intertwined History
Alien and Predator have been part of the same world for longer than you might remember. Although the first AVP film was released in 2004, the two space monsters first clashed in a 1989 Dark Horse comic series called Aliens vs. Predator. Predator 2, released the next year in 1990, famously featured an Easter egg referencing Alien by including a Xenomorph skull on the trophy wall of the Predator’s ship. Many other AVP comics and video games were released throughout the ‘90s, cementing the idea of these two creatures having a shared universe long before that idea was popularized in the mainstream by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, they may have gotten to the trend too early. Although there were two AVP films released in the 2000s, Paul W. S. Anderson’s Alien vs. Predator in 2004 and The Brothers Strause’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in 2007, the series failed to catch on because of poor critical and audience reception (even though they made money at the box office). Although serialized superhero and science-fiction blockbusters were starting to take over the world at the time in large part because of a series of trends set in place by the Star Wars prequel trilogy, not every franchise in the genre space was given the love and care it needed to last long term. AVP was treated as a B-tier property by 20th Century Fox even though both Alien and Predator had excellent films to their names in the past.
Ridley Scott’s original Alien is one of the greatest horror films ever made, James Cameron’s Aliens is among the most iconic movie sequels, and John McTiernan’s original Predator is one of the best action films of the 1980s. Now, we’re not saying AVP needed to aim for an Oscar (or are we?), but few would argue that the two films we received stood up with the best the individual franchises had to offer. The 2010s only made the situation worse with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus series never getting a third entry after the commercial disappointment of Alien: Covenant, and Shane Black’s attempt to rejuvenate the Predator franchise with The Predator falling flat on its face. But after the success of Prey in 2022 and Alien: Romulus in 2024, Alien and Predator have seen their fortunes turn around.
And now that we’ve seen teases of their upcoming projects, the idea of a new AVP seems closer than ever.
Converging for Carnage
We also have to keep in mind that a sequel to Alien: Romulus is currently in development, and that director Fede Álvarez is not just attached to return for that film, but has also outright stated he would be interested in directing an Alien vs. Predator film. Romulus was a big critical and commercial success for Disney, relaunching the franchise after the Prometheus series fell apart while still keeping that part of the brand alive with the Engineer-alike monster in the third act. Cailee Spaeny’s Rain Carradine and David Jonsson’s Andy are currently in stasis heading to Yvaga III, with a direct sequel presumably picking up with those two and their continued voyage in the dark reaches of space. But with Badlands also set in the stars, could we see some cameos or Easter eggs in that film hinting at a Romulus connection?
In fact, Álvarez recently said that the best way to do an Alien vs. Predator movie would be to have it be a surprise to audiences:
“The best AVP will be the one that you don’t know is AVP until the other guy shows up,” the filmmaker recently told Collider. “You think you’re watching a Predator movie, and then they land in some place and there are creatures, and fucking hell, it’s a Xenomorph. That would get me. … Or vice versa, you’re in an Alien movie, and then suddenly a mysterious creature is there, and you can hear that sound, and you see the cloak, and you go, ‘Is that a fucking Predator?’”
Álvarez coming across excited by the idea of AVP gives us hope that a new take on the mash-up will succeed where the previous ones fell short. Setting both of those films on a contemporary Earth limited their scope considerably, and they struggled to get the audience invested in any of their two-dimensional characters. The films were so rejected by the fanbase that an AVP relaunch could throw those movies out of continuity without any hassles and start over with a clean slate. With Badlands switching up the Predator formula by casting a Predator as the lead character, perhaps Dek (provided he survives Badlands) could be the main hero of a new AVP. As well, another entry in the crossover series could finally expand on the Predalien concept introduced in those films. Maybe some Engineer mutagen could create a being that’s part Alien, part Predator, and part Engineer? Now that would be terrifying.
Whatever happens with all of these upcoming projects, both Alien and Predator are in a much healthier state now than they have been in years. Yet that also means that the idea of making a proper crossover film between the two almost certainly has to be on Disney’s radar, especially since an Alien vs. Predator match-up is just about the biggest “event” you can get within this franchise. With cinematic universes and cross-medium integration more popular than ever, a new AVP feels more like a question of when instead of if. Especially with talented filmmakers like Álvarez and Trachtenberg now associated with the property, perhaps these two iconic monsters will finally get the big screen battle they so rightly deserve.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
