Predator: Killer of Killers on Disney+ Is Poetry in Action
Dan Trachtenberg is the Kevin Feige of the Predator franchise. Ever since 2022’s Prey, Trachtenberg proved that stories about an alien race of hunter-killers can be told from a fresh perspective. The made-for-streaming movie featuring Novocaine’s Amber Midthunder was the first Predator story set in the past, in the flatlands of 1719 North America. It had been established in Predator 2 that the alien Yautja had been using Earth as their hunting ground for hundreds of years, opening up a treasure trove of storytelling potential that remained untapped for 30 years until Trachtenberg decided to explore it. Predator: Killer of Killers on Disney+ is a 90-minute animated feature that jumps from the same premise and runs with it, delivering one of the most thrilling and original films of the year.
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With the advent of the Spider-verse and Arcane, the bar for animated features or television shows is set very high. Killer of Killers matches that bar visually and exceeds it narratively. Formatted into chapters titled "The Shield," "The Sword," "The Bullet," and "The Battle," Killer of Killers takes viewers into different points in history, beginning with a tale of a Scandinavian Viking woman (The Shield) on a quest for revenge in the year 841. Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) is a Viking leader who does battle with her bladed shield, an unusual choice of weapon that gives the chapter its name and theme as well as lends itself to some truly creative action sequences. Killer of Killers is an adrenaline rush all throughout, a series of fast-paced and fantastical fight scenes punctuated by thoughtful world-building and storytelling. Ursa’s battle prowess catches the eye of a Predator, and their showdown at the climax of the first chapter is an exhilarating preview of what’s to come.
The second chapter, The Sword, takes viewers to 1609 Feudal Japan, where two brothers vie for succession before their samurai father’s harsh and critical eye. Kenji (Louis Ozawa) eventually follows the path of shinobi, colloquially known as ninja, until fate eventually brings him face-to-face with his samurai sibling Kiyoshi (also voiced by Ozawa). The brothers display such impressive martial prowess that a Predator, who had been observing unseen throughout, naturally reveals itself and brings its menace to the fray. The chapter concludes in a beautiful, poetic fashion because Killer of Killers is structured in exactly that way: a poem. Each chapter is a stanza suffused with beauty and death, animated so vibrantly that it never gets tiring to watch.
The Bullet is set in 1942, in the heat of the US Navy’s North African campaign in World War 2. John J. Torres (Rick Gonzalez) is a fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier whose squadron becomes the target of a Predator’s starship. It’s the first time that the Predator franchise has shown the Yautja exhibiting their hunting practices using their ships, further illustrating how deeply ingrained hunting is in their alien culture. Everything is a game. Everything is a test. Everyone is prey.
Trachtenberg demonstrates a stunning mastery of storytelling as well as an unsurpassed understanding of the Predator franchise. As the film concludes with the fourth and final chapter, we get a glimpse of the Yautja’s home world, a brutal, gladiatorial planet where everything is a competition and hierarchy is determined by who hunts the most dangerous game. Killer of Killers adds to the Predator mythos in ways no other Predator film ever has. By completely embracing the Yautja’s history of using Earth as a hunting ground for a millennia, Trachtenberg taps into untold potential. By showing how Predators hunt with their starships, he opens up the possibility of more stories of hunting in different arenas. As with Prey, Killer of Killers transformed Predator from a predictable, trope-laden franchise into a world of possibilities. Whereas Jurassic World: Rebirth regressed into a creatively bankrupt (albeit successful) money grab that simply rehashed all its greatest hits, Trachtenberg boldly tells new stories with one of Hollywood’s most famous antagonists.
This is why Predator: Badlands, slated for theatrical release this November, is one of the most exciting and hotly anticipated entries in the franchise. Helmed by Trachtenberg, Badlands flips the script and puts a Yautja as the story’s main character instead of its villain. Killer of Killers is a visceral banquet spread of adrenaline-pumping action and unbridled badassery, a teaser of what lies ahead, a demonstration of how the Predator franchise is in very capable hands. The same way Kevin Feige shaped the MCU, Dan Trachtenberg can and should chart the future of Predator. His vision extends far beyond what Hollywood ever saw, and for almost four decades, all we’d ever gotten were variations on a theme, never venturing far from a formula that worked in 1987.
Killer of Killers is a glorious example of what can be achieved by a director with vision and the trust and support of a studio unafraid to break old norms. Trachtenberg has tapped into a gold mine of stories, as Prey and Killer of Killers usher in an exciting, new age of action and science fiction where the familiar becomes fresh and new. Trachtenberg demonstrates exactly how to make films for decades-old franchises by looking at them from new angles and different lenses. Predator is cooler than it's ever been, and Killer of Killers sits at the very top of the animated feature food chain.
