Why The Prey Trailer Hides The Predator

The trailer for Prey, Hulu’s upcoming prequel to the Predator franchise, teases the movie well enough, but declines to show audiences a Yautja.

The Predator franchise is set to return soon for a fifth installment called Prey, but the prequel’s trailer has opted to keep the alien hidden. In some ways, Prey looks to try and get the Predator franchise back to basics, while in others, it tries to take the franchise in new directions. Prey stars Native American actress Amber Midthunder as Naru, a Comanche warrior who ends up going head to head with a Yautja that threatens the safety of her tribe.

Prey is the first Predator installment to be produced under Disney’s leadership, following the company’s purchase of Fox’s movie and TV assets in 2019. As made clear in Prey‘s trailer, it’s also the first entry into the Predator franchise that will be skipping theaters, heading straight for a debut on the Disney-owned streaming service Hulu later this summer. Prey is an opportunity to try and right the ship for the series, which saw 2018’s The Predator earn mostly negative reviews and fail to impress at the box office.

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The Prey trailer showcases Naru’s fighting spirit, as well as the danger the Yautja poses by having the galaxy’s ultimate hunter easily dispatch an enormous bear. As for the Predator creature’s appearance in Prey, though, that’s being kept secret. Some quick glimpses of it are shown, but nothing offering a full view of its appearance. This is likely being done for one major reason: hype. Prey doesn’t release for two more months, and by keeping the Predator invisible, camouflaged, or mostly offscreen, anticipation can be be built for its eventual reveal. Perhaps the reveal will even be kept back for the film’s release, with the prospect used to urge diehard Predator fans into watching Prey immediately after launch.

Another, smaller potential reasoning behind the Prey trailer not showing off the Predator is that it wants to put the spotlight squarely on Naru, a historic addition to the franchise as its first leading female heroine. Focusing on the Yautja’s appearance could serve to overshadow Naru in the Prey trailer, and it is vital that potential viewers of the prequel empathize with her and take her seriously as an opponent. Perhaps a later trailer can do the reverse, moving the spotlight off of Naru and onto the Yautja.

Since Prey is a long-ago prequel set in 1719, it’s also possible that a radically different Predator design is being employed, and its reveal within the film will be worthy of dropped jaws. Continuing with the female empowerment theming, perhaps the central Predator will actually by the franchise’s first featured female Yautja. While female Yautja have been seen in the overall franchise before, none have ever been the primary antagonist of a film, and pitting two strong, deadly female warriors against each other in Prey could provide an interesting counterpoint to just how famously macho the Arnold Schwarzenegger Predator movie was.

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