It’s hard to imagine, back in 1987 when the first Predator film came out showcasing big Arnie’s rippling biceps, that anyone could have predicted it would spawn such a diverse array of sequel material. But here we are: 2025 brings us an animated anthology, with Predators tearing human kind a new one in Viking times, samurai-era Japan, and Florida during the second world war. This follows the excellent 2022 movie Prey and the mostly stupid Alien vs Predator from 2004, in which a lady makes friends with a Predator, which rather nullifies the scare factor.
Killer of Killers opens with the Viking chapter, The Shield, set in AD841. One of the film’s better ideas is the Vikings referring to the Predator as Grendel, a reference of course to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, in which a humanoid monster walks in darkness and hunts the weak … sound familiar? Much Game of Thrones style Sturm und Drang follows, before the most powerful Viking is abducted by the Predators who are essentially doing casting for their version of a reality show.
