By October 2024, Trachtenberg, who previously directed Prey (2022), had made a secret film in the franchise, set to be released prior to Predator: Badlands (2025). In April 2025, the film's title and release date were revealed. Animation was provided by The Third Floor.
Predator: Killer of Killers was released on June 6, 2025, in the United States on Hulu and internationally on Disney+.[2] The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its animation, Trachtenberg’s direction, writing, action sequences, musical score, and voice cast.
Plot
Go forth among the stars and seek only the strongest prey. They shall be your trophy. Become the killer of killers.
—Opening epigraph attributed to the "Yautja Codex 0522/74"
The Shield
In Scandinavia in the year 841, Viking warrior Ursa leads her son Anders and their clan on an expedition to destroy the Krivich tribe and their leader, Zoran, who was responsible for the death of Ursa's father. They slaughter Zoran's clan after getting his location from a prisoner taken after a previous battle, and Ursa confronts him in his fortress; he initially fails to recognize her and ridicules her for killing her own father, but Anders beheads him with a spear after Ursa freezes in shame. Immediately after the battle, a Predator arrives, badly wounds Anders, and begins killing Ursa's clansmen one by one with a sonic weapon. Ursa manages to defeat and kill the Predator after a brutal underwater duel, but Anders succumbs to his wounds and dies in her arms.
The Sword
By 1609 in Japan, brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi, sons of a samurai warlord, are ordered to duel to determine their father's successor. Kenji refuses to fight, but Kiyoshi attacks and defeats him, scarring his face; disgraced, Kenji flees as Kiyoshi takes his place next to their father. Twenty years later, with their father having passed away, Kiyoshi has become lord of the region, while Kenji has lived in exile as a shinobi. Kenji returns to confront his brother, unaware that a Predator is hunting him. He stealthily infiltrates his brother's castle, kills or knocks out his guards, and defeats Kiyoshi in a sword fight, paying him back for their childhood duel by scarring his face with his sword. After Kiyoshi falls into the castle's moat, the Predator ambushes Kenji and slaughters its way through the remaining castle guards. Kenji escapes and rescues the injured Kiyoshi. After a brief fight, brothers join forces and succeed in killing the Predator after a brutal battle, after which Kenji comforts his brother by telling him he is not alone; Kiyoshi then dies from his wounds.
The Bullet
In 1942, Latino-American mechanic John J. Torres joins the U.S. Navy as a Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter pilot under the command of Captain "Vandy" Vandenberg, after being given a draft notice by his father. During the North African campaign, Torres' squad, the Texas Aces, investigates the destruction of a friendly air unit by an unknown aircraft after hearing the sole surviving pilot's ramblings. Torres, grounded after a malfunction, discovers the aircraft is a Predator starship attacking both sides. Taking a battered Wildcat that he calls "the Bullet", he attempts to warn the others but arrives too late, with the other pilots refusing to believe his claims that something else has been killing their allies. The Predator fighter pilot systematically annihilates his squadron until only he and Vandy remain, during which Torres realizes that the Predator can only see their planes' heat sources, so he shuts down his plane's engines to conceal himself; however, Vandy sacrifices himself to buy time for Torres, with the Predator destroying his plane. Torres succeeded outmaneuvers the Predator and damages its ship, then forces it to follow him into a battle zone where the Predator's ship is increasingly damaged by both friendly and enemy forces; thus, Torres bails from his plane and tricks the Predator into hooking his engine, blowing the ship up and killing the Predator in the process. Sometime after World War II ends, while working in his garage, Torres is abducted by another Predator ship.
The Battle
Torres awakens in a cell alongside Ursa and Kenji, all three having been placed in suspended animation by the Predators.[a] They are all fitted with explosive collars by the Predators, taken to a gladiatorial arena on an arid, desert alien world, and presented to the leader of the Predator war band, a Predator warlord Ursa calls the "Grendel King," who commands them to fight to the death, with the winner to fight him. Seeking to either die in combat or face the Grendel King so she can see her son in Valhalla, Ursa initially attacks Torres and Kenji, but they eventually convince her to join forces and escape. The Grendel King unleashes a massive alien beast into the arena, which swallows Torres. Ursa and Kenji work together to kill the creature and Torres escapes after stealing an eaten Predator's weapons, stealing a hoverbike while also deactivating the explosive collars. The three flee toward the Grendel King's spaceship.
Ursa and Kenji battle the Grendel King and badly damage him while Torres tries to figure out how to fly his ship. The Grendel King gains the upper hand against the two warriors and nearly kills them, but Torres uses the engines to blast the Grendel King away; the Grendel King severs Kenji's right arm with a thrown spear and Predator soldiers ground the ship with a harpoon launcher. Telling Torres and Kenji not to avenge her, Ursa uses her shield to slide down the harpoon cable and destroy the launcher, sacrificing herself to let the others escape as the Grendel King's men capture her. Unbothered by Kenji and Torres' escape, the Grendel King rallies a fleet of starships and calls for a hunting expedition to pursue them. Ursa is placed back in suspended animation and stored alongside other captives, including Naru,[b]Mike Harrigan,[c] and Dutch Schaefer.[d]
Lindsay LaVanchy as Ursa, an aggressive, violent and temperamental 9th century Scandinavian Viking hunter who seeks vengeance on a warlord who killed her father.
Louis Ozawa as Kenji Kamakami, a stoic and relaxed 17th century Japanese rōnin who is the disgraced son of a samurai warlord; and Kiyoshi Kamakami, Kenji's samurai brother who succeeds him as their father's successor.
Rick Gonzalez as John J. Torres, a cheery and upbeat 20th century Latino mechanic who is drafted as an Allied fighter pilot during World War 2.
Michael Biehn as Vandenberg "Vandy", a fighter pilot and the commander of the Texas Aces, who serves as Torres's mentor.
Doug Cockle as Einar, Ursa's father and the earl of Ladoga who was killed long ago by Zoran.
Damien Haas as Anders, Ursa's young son and Einar's grandson.
Lauren Holt as Freya, one of Ursa's Viking warriors and the only other named female member in her tribe.
Jeff Leach as Ivar, another one of Ursa's Viking warriors.
Piotr Michael as Gunnar, another of Ursa's Viking warriors.
Andrew Morgado as Chief Zoran, a powerful Krivich chieftain who killed and then usurped Einar.
Alessa Luz Martinez as Delgado, a young World War 2 mechanic who is friends with Torres.
Felix Solis as Mr. Torres, Torres's strict father who works as a mechanic. He initially does not allow his son to serve as a pilot because he thinks his son abuses his vehicles' functions without concern.
Britton Watkins as the Yautja warlord dubbed "Grendel King", the ruthless leader of a Yautja war band who seeks to battle only the strongest warrior and force powerful warriors to fight each other for his approval.
Production included Micho Robert Rutare serving as screenwriter, while the productions were created simultaneously.[5]Benjamin Wallfisch serves as the film's composer, marking his first composition for an animated film.[6] The soundtrack was released on June 6, 2025.[7] The film was animated using Unreal Engine, one of the first feature films to do so, and drew stylistic influences from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (1988) and Netflix's Arcane (2021–2024), aiming to embrace both stylized violence and visual spectacle in ways Trachtenberg felt would be less effective in live-action.[8] Several artists from Arcane contributed to the production, including lead character animator Steven J. Meyer.[8] Trachtenberg also cited Christopher Guest's Best in Show (2000) as a structural inspiration, aiming for emotional ambiguity by encouraging empathy with all three protagonists.[8]
Trachtenberg and the animation team sought to make each Predator antagonist distinct, wanting individuals of their species to be "as varied, at least, as we are."[9] In doing so, Trachtenberg hoped to avoid the Star Wars trope in which all individuals of a species look identical: "I get a little bored when we see Kashyyyk, the Wookiee planet or whatever, and they're all just a bunch of Chewbaccas. Some have a little bit of a gray fur and some of them [don't], but they're all basically just Chewbacca, just standing around being Wookiees."[9]
Benjamin Wallfisch serves as the film's composer, marking his first composition for an animated film.[6] The soundtrack was released on June 6, 2025.[7]
Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which monitors daily updated VOD charts and streaming ratings across the globe, reported that Predator: Killer of Killers was the top streaming film on Hulu the day following its release on the platform.[11]JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 45 million users around the world, estimated that Predator: Killer of Killers was the third most-streamed film in the U.S. from June 9–15.[12]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 103 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Plunking the Predator into a series of inspired matchups with a striking visual palette, Killer of Killers is a lean, mean, and just plain awesome addition to the iconic sci-fi franchise."[13]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[14]
Toussaint Egan of The A.V. Club praised the film's "frenetic violence and novel cinematography" and efficient storytelling with "little to no fat".[15] Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich called it "an awesomely violent and artfully staged piece of animated pulp" that answers burning questions like, "Who would win in a fight: a Predator or a ninja? What about a Predator or a Viking?"[16] Jim Vorel of Paste criticized the film's "iffy animation" but described its story as "pulpy sci-fi goodness that longtime series fans have likely been craving".[17] In a mixed review, Catherine Bray of The Guardian also described the animation as lacking a "spark of life and ingenuity", speculating that AI might have been used.[18] In Screen Rant, Grant Hermann criticized the film's ending as "a blatant setup for a sequel [that] actively ruined much of my love for Prey".[19] Aidan Kelley of Collider, in contrast, praised the final segment as pleasantly surprising and setting up interesting future developments in "a new golden age for the Predator franchise".[20]
See also
Grendel – a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf
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