Predator characters to make cameos, though one unseen legacy figure could make a surprise appearance. The original Predator had a fantastic hook, with the movie being a sci-fi/horror update of the Beowulf poem. It saw a group an elite group of soldiers going up against an alien hunter, with director John McTiernan taking what could have been a silly b-movie and elevating it into an action classic. The original Predator mostly kept its titular hunter in the shadows, but later entries and spin-off material would flesh out the mythology of the species.
Predators saw the hunters taking the best warriors from planet Earth and dropping them on a special "game" planet. Sadly, 2018's The Predator from director Shane Black proved to be a letdown, with the sequel suffering from sloppy pacing and a lack of cohesion. The Predator wasn't a bomb but it failed to kick off planned sequels. The next outing will be Dan Trachtenberg's Prey, a prequel set in the Comanche Nation, where female warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) will face off with a ferocious alien hunter.
While it might be a prequel, Prey's premise also feels like a semi-remake, with the film taking the concept back to basics as a lone warrior is left to battle the seemingly unkillable hunter. Given that Prey is set in 1719, that makes cameos from franchise heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch or Predator 2's Harrigan (Danny Glover) all but impossible. That said, the trailer for Prey showed that the hunter will be facing off against fur trappers in addition to Naru's tribe. This means Prey could conceivably make a Predator 2 callback and introduce the owner of Harrigan's "trophy" flintlock pistol, Raphael Adolini.
During the finale of Predator 2, Harrigan tracks the Predator back to its ship and slays it after a grueling battle. The detective is then confronted by a ship loaded with more hunters, but instead of killing him, the elder "Greyback" lets Harrigan leave and gifts him the pistol, which is engraved with the date "1715." A comic dubbed Predator: 1718 later revealed Adolini was a pirate who met and fought alongside a young Greyback, who gifted him the flintlock before dying.
However, Prey could retcon this and make Raphael Adolini himself part of the fur trappers who encounter the Predator. Not only would this be a neat way to tie the prequel into the franchise at large, but it could also pay off a lingering Predator 2's mystery. Trachtenberg has shown himself to be a fan of the series, so it's unlikely the possibility of paying off the Adolini flintlock ed him by while developing the screenplay, but time will tell if Prey will take this approach.
