“Predator” franchise producers and 20th Century Studios have been trying to get Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the saddle as his rescue ops leader, Major Dutch Schaefer, for years, but there seem to be early signs that “Prey” and “Predator: Badlands” director Dan Trachtenberg may end up baging that big return after multiple attempts in the past.
Over the weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, Trachtenberg teased (via Deadline) during the “Badlands” panel about a big live-action return of Dutch. The filmmaker stated that he’s planning to “cook up stuff for that guy” after a recent breakfast meeting with the former governor of California.
Without spoiling details, there is a brief nod to Dutch in “Predator: Killer of Killers” (co-directed by Trachtenberg), which suggests he’s still alive and could make a grand return in the future. Not unlike how Schwarzenegger has been able to show up in multiple “Terminator” sequels, the last one being “Terminator: Dark Fate” in 2019.
Dutch’s return has been a long time coming. Previously, Schwarzenegger nearly returned as Dutch in “Predator 2” starring Danny Glover, only for the part to morph into what Gary Busey delivered when the studio couldn’t secure the action star and hired Busey instead. Later on, there had been a behind-the-scenes attempt to get Schwarzenegger to cameo in “Predators” (the part went to Lawrence Fishburne) and scrapped plans for a nod at the end of Shane Black‘s “The Predator.”
Speaking of “Predator: Badlands,” the movie is seemingly acting as a new crossover of sorts with the “Alien” universe as Elle Fanning‘s character Thia is a Weyland-Yutani android, and this will mark the first big connective tissue with a solo outing since the Xenomorph skull showing up toward the end of “Predator 2.”
In the first half of the 1990s, there was a brief attempt to get Roland Emmerich and screenwriter Dean Devlin around the filming/release of “Universal Soldier” to develop an early version of “Aliens vs Predator” crossover to have Schwarzenegger (there are pictures of the action star visiting the set of the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, who originally played the first iteration of the predator before a character redesign and recasting) back in the Dutch role, only for the project to fizzle out, and the director pivoted to make his other sci-fi action flick, “Stargate.”
“Predator: Badlands” arrives in theaters on November 7, which sees the latest installment going head-to-head against Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” remake at Paramount.
- Christopher Marc
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