Shane Black Pours More Fuel On The Predator Hype Fire

Short of John McTiernan returning, what things could one want from a new Predator movie?  Shane Black writing? Shane Black directing?  Shane Black demanding of Fox that they allow him to do his thing with a large budget? Shane Black insisting that it’s a sequel, not a reboot?

Shane Black revealing it’s hard ‘R’?  Arnold Schwarzenegger hinting about a return of the Major?  Shane Black not denying a return of the Major?

More?  How about Shane Black only retconning ‘Predators’ and that he doesn’t want to see a ‘wiry kid with a man-bun fight the Predator’?  Here’s some info from one of his latest interviews;

That feels like it came very much kicking and screaming out of a particular macho mindset of 1980s cinema. I’m wondering if that, in your eyes, is still relevant now or if that needs to change contexts for today?

I think that the only thing that the 1980s macho context really has to add is that back then, the actors tended to be more… I think more “men,” and less “boys.” For instance, back in the day, the ones who filled my head as I grew up: Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, those types of people in The Dirty Dozen. “Men.” I don’t want to see a wiry kid with with a man-bun fight the Predator. And that’s the difference. Now, that said, I think it would be great to shake it up, that not everybody who goes up against the Predator is a tough guy with giant muscles.

You’re calling it The Predator. Is that just a way to rebrand it, or refocus it, or is there a significance to that [title], like, “This is the one. This guy is THE Predator?”

There is a reference in the script as to why that makes sense but I’m not really supposed to talk about it.

Notice how this person is trying to prompt Black to declare his ‘progressive’ values, in the hopes that he’d say something like perhaps we can see Scarlett Johansson come in and kick the Predator’s ass some day.  Nice of Black to resist.  In the full interview, he also deflects on Schwarzenegger’s involvement once again, which sounds like it might happen.

He also says that the movie is set in 2018 and does not retcon Predator 2, although it doesn’t sound like it would be mentioned.  He says Predator 2 will not be erased since it was set in 1990, although it was actually set in 1997.