“There’s one of two ways we can go,” writer/director Shane Black said in May of 2016. “We use [Arnold] Schwarzenegger or we don’t. And there’s advantages to using him and there’s a story to be told if we don’t, and I’m not going to tell you which one we chose, but we made a choice that I think is cool and we’ll see what happens,” Black said.
READ MORE: Arnold Schwarzenegger Wants Revenge In Trailer For Darren Aronofsky-Produced ‘Aftermath’
So did Schwarzenegger make the cut? Doesn’t look or sound like it. “I’m currently working on Predator,” star Boyd Holbrook recently told We Got This Covered. “It’s not a sequel; Shane Black has made something totally new, somehow keeping within the realm of Predator [while also being] absolutely new in terms of the story that we’re talking about today, and rooted in something real. It’s real fresh. I don’t think you’re going to see Schwarzenegger. It would kind of make it a gimmick. It’s horror, science-fiction and a western.”
Further proof? Black dropped a (partial) first look of the cast today (see below) as production kicked off. The cast includes Boyd Holbrook (“Narcos,” “Logan“), Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight“), Keegan-Michael Key (“Key & Peele”), Thomas Jane (“The Punisher“), Jacob Tremblay (“Room“) and Sterling K. Brown (“The People vs. O.J. Simpson“). That doesn’t mean Schwarzenegger can’t cameo or appear at some point, but it seems unlikely that he’ll be part of the principal cast. By the way, a R-rating has been confirmed, see Black’s tweet below.
Partial cast… beautiful human beings, good people. Also, killers. Cameras roll today. Follow me on Twitter for updates. Wish us luck. pic.twitter.com/vYGgGesW0Y
— Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 20, 2017
And, just to be clear… PG-13 is for pussies. Spines bleed… a lot.
— Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 18, 2017
Monday… the hunt is on. pic.twitter.com/4tScRCnhGA
— Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 18, 2017
