Movies
Unused Prop for Alternate Ending Suggests ‘The Predator’ Almost Tied Itself into the ‘Alien’ Franchise
We know that The Predator was at one point going to end *way* differently, with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the franchise for a cameo appearance that never happened because, well, Arnold really wasn’t interested in doing it. Schwarzenegger didn’t care to reprise the role of Dutch for a mere cameo in the film, so it never ended up happening.
Instead, the film ends with Boyd Holbrook finding himself a badass new Predator-killing exo-suit in the form of the Iron Man-style “Predator Killer,” but a highly interesting unused prop from the production suggests that the film’s ending was originally going to tie The Predator into the Alien franchise; the two franchises, of course, have linked up in the past.
Images of the prop have been shared by artists Sara Villarreal and Jon K. Miller on Instagram (via AvP Galaxy), and it’s a FaceHugger-inspired breathing mask with the “Weyland Yutani” logo on it! Villarreal and Miller both refer to the mask as a “FaceHugger breathing apparatus” that they helped design for an “alternate ending” to Shane Black’s film.
At this time, we have no idea if this was supposed to be part of the Arnold ending or a different one entirely, but we’ll do some more digging. To say the least, very interesting!
Scroll through each of the Instagram embeds below to see more images.
Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.
First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.
Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.
Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.
Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.
“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”
She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”
At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.
Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.
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