Predator: Killer of Killers

• Directed by Dan Trachtenberg and Co-Directed by Joshua Wassung
• June 6, 2025
• Hulu
• Based on characters created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas

Voice Cast

• Ursa-Lindsay LaVanchy
• Young Ursa-Cherami Leigh
• Kenji and Kiyoshi Kamakami-Louis Ozawa
• Torres-Rick Gonzalez
• Vandy-Michael Biehn
• Einar-Doug Cockle
• Anders-Damien Haas
• Freya-Lauren Holt
• Ivar-Jeff Leach
• Gunnar-Piotr Michael
• Chief Zoran-Andrew Morgado
• Torres’s father-Felix Solis
• Warlord Predator-Britton Watkins

Three of the fiercest warriors in history become prey for a Predator.

I am bit conflicted on Predator: Killer of Killers. I did like it, but I also feel it gets some stuff wrong about the Predator mythology/lore. I am left feeling it is more of a soft reboot or even has decided to ignore whatever might get in the way of telling this story. Such things poke my balloon in something I have consumed most if not all of.

A small yet vocal set of fans have been asking for a long time for Predator films set in the past. As alluded to in Predator 2, they’ve been coming to Earth for quite some time. Rather than get a live action movie of that we get here a bit of a triptych of short films set in the past that are brought together for the climax.

The flow of the animation is reminiscent of Jonny Quest with the same lack of smoothness. Visually it looks like art you would find painted on cheap black velvet when they focus in on something. While I can down any number of episodes of the original Jonny Quest in long succession, I find it a bit distracting here.

Originally the Predator would kill the alpha killer. It aimed for whoever appeared the most dangerous or legitimate threat. Even in Robert Rodriguez’s somewhat divisive Predators that was the point. Here the Predators seem to pick the first killer they see. It’s not after the strongest or to prove itself or to have a good hunt.

Another thing is that Predators are trophy hunters. They’re on safari more or less-at least in the first two. They would clean and keep the skulls of those that they killed as trophies. That kind of went away for reasons. The reveal when the three stories merge makes what occurs less logical when held up to previous movies.

To me the designs seem off or wrong in Killer of Killers. In contrast to the idea of them being stealthy warriors, we get a couple of hulking brutes that look like the most jacked of bodybuilders. A creature that appears like it is all muscle and bulk as opposed to the slim yet fit creatures of before is tough to swallow. The one in the Japanese segment looks like he has scoliosis! The one featured in the WWII segment has the exceedingly thick head growths cut like they were buzzed. Even if you ignore The Predator making them some kind of sensory organ, they were still clearly not hair that you could simply cut off. The thickness alone gave that away.

As I mentioned before all three stories merge. ‘Killer of Killers’ in the title means they all fight each other and the survivor gets to face a character identified in the credits as ‘Warlord Predator’. So these aliens culled from across the centuries three different people and kept them on ice until some point just to face to this one guy? That brings all sorts of questions to my mind.

During this scene I guess it’s meant as a joke as well as an homage, but we get an antiquated (even by the 1940s) firearm given to the character of Torres for the fight. These aliens were able to reunite everyone with an era/culture appropriate weapon, but the Spanish guy could not even get a contemporary firearm? These are the same entities capable of locating him after their encounter but have no ability to get the right weapon just for him.

The climax takes place in a dusty arena with a few random monsters. I found the arena scene a bit reminiscent of the scene on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones. The basics of the setting with the ensuing chaos told me at the minimum that moment was inspired by that other Disney property.

Of course our trio beats the Predators and two of the three get away. In three films when the Predator had lost, being bad sports they activated an explosive to kill the human victor. Danny Glover was the only one that stopped it. Rather than use that reflexive bit of action, the Predator Warlord gets his bros to saddle up and give chase. Never mind that Torres who is piloting the interstellar craft has only flown planes made around WWII. Roll credits!

But wait! There’s more! In a post credit scene we see the Viking woman from the first story in a cryogenic pod being moved through a rather large room filled with many other pods. In one final shot we get Naru of Prey. So are they no longer trophy hunters? Or is this a philosophically distinct group from what we previously saw?

I know I am bringing up quite a few things I have issues with but I enjoyed Killer of Killers enough. It’s a good concept that is adequately executed. It’s not disappointing but it disregards some pre-established lore to get the story done. It threw some of the baby out with the bathwater and that lack of consistency to a preestablished world harms the storytelling. I want those bits to remain and bit used creatively!

Predator: Killer of Killers isn’t bad. For an animated feature based on the Predator franchise it’s probably better than one could expect. Just don’t think too much about what was done before or you might feel it gets contradicted here. It’s enjoyable enough and you may even want to check it out again.