Just asking from your perspective as a fan, but how much of the Predator franchise is considered canon? I've read a ton of crossovers (Batman versus Predator/Superman versus Aliens etc)... but how much of the info on Predators is accepted?
It's a lot to cover on what is considered canon and believe it or not, some crossover stories create a lot of confusion and division among the fanbase. Oh, I'm sure you heard of Marvel bringing in the hunters into their own universe, pitting them against the superheroes (I'd kill to see Spider-Man going up against a Veteran Predator <3).
But for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep it grounded on the Predators' own universe, movies, and comics that tie into the movies. I'll even add in tidbits of the Alien franchise. Be prepared, this might be a loooong post XD
The most famous 'crossover' that accepted as canon (despite some fans regarding it as not) is Alien vs. Predator. Everybody obviously knows that one Easter egg in Predator 2 that showed the City Hunter's trophy collection and what do we see?
The skull of an alien aka the Xenomorph. That's enough to confirm that both franchises and their respective stories are canon and linked together officially!
Now, lets dive into the WHOLE Predator franchise and the canon timeline.
In Alien vs. Predator, the story established that the Predators had came to Earth since 3000 D.C., the Temple Building Era and were a major influence to human civilization and culture.
Now, we fast forward to 1718 The Adolini Hunt and 1719 where the movie Prey takes place. This...is rather confusing for various reasons. Originally, the comic Predator 1718 was considered canon because it featured Raphael Adolini, the owner of the famous pistol from Predator 2 that was carried by the Elder Predator known as Greyback. In that story, Raphael was a pirate captain and an absolute badass, which is why Greyback respected him and took the pistol in honor of him.
Unfortunately, the Adolini pistol story changed and the comic book isn't canon anymore (*facepalms*) because of Prey. Raphael wasn't a pirate captain, just a member of the French Trappers that helps them with translation. After dying, he passed the pistol to Naru, making her the new owner of the firearm. We get to see an ominous end credit scene that displayed various Predator ships invading Naru's village, it's safe to assume that it is Greyback and his clan. He probably obtained the pistol from Naru from that point on.
That's not the only thing that changed. According to the director and his crew, the Feral Predator is said to be the first Predator to have arrived on Earth, which isn't true as evidence suggested in Predator 2 and Alien vs. Predator that these hunters all have been visiting Earth since the dinosaur era! This could be an oversight or retcon to the story. Perhaps more specifically, the Feral Predator could be the first of his own clan to have arrived on Earth.
So, Prey has a few changes and possible retcons (still a badass and awesome movie ^_^ b).
We move forward into the modern era and this is from what I believe was the Alien vs. Predator novel. Charles Weyland written a report about what happened to the Norwegian whaling station before the events of Alien vs. Predator.
By 1904, a successful Norwegian whaling station was operating out of Bouvet Island off the Antarctic coast. According to the controversial Charles Bishop Weyland report ("Alien vs. Predator"), on an unknown date, the settlement claimed to experience a number of mysterious events that ranged from unidentifiable lights in the sky to unusual seismic activity. The Weyland report claims that the whalers eventually retrieved an object from the ice â a metal pod that released a Yautja.
The report further claims the Yautja annihilated the whalers along with a number of Xenomorph drones that had been somehow released from the alleged temple, long since frozen in the ice. The entirety of the Weyland report remains in doubt, and there is no physical evidence to support that the 1904 desertion of Razorback was due to localized intergalactic conflict. It may be possible to re-open this investigation as a tragic mass hysteria incident such as the Smalls Lighthouse disaster or the 2016 clown panic.
Now we go into the events of the first Predator movie and lets assume the movie release date years are the same as the in-lore dates.
1987- The Guatemalan Slaughter (Predator)
We all know the story of Dutch and his team of mercenaries. This is the first Predator in history to take on modern day soldiers. Prior to the events of the movie, the hunter already killed off another team of soldiers before Dutch and his friends arrived in the jungle. So, this Predator mustâve been hunting for a while.Â
After successfully defeating the Predator, Dutch survived, but his involvement to the Predator franchise doesnât end there.Â
1990 - The Los Angeles Wave (Predator 2)
Another hunter enters the hunting grounds, the City Hunter and this introduces the group known as the OWLF (Other Worldly Life Forms program). Peter Keyes and the organization were secretly investigating the 1987 incident with little help from Dutch. So the OWLF have been dealing with aliens, most especially the Predators/Yautja for a while. The organization expressed great interest and admiration for the Predatorsâ advanced technology and wanted it for themselves. This obsession over the hunting tech is probably one of the main reasons why hunters NEED to activate the wrist bomb should they fail their hunt or if they are in critical condition to continue. So the OWLF was presented as a major threat to the Yautja species.Â
Unfortunately for Keyes, the OWLF soldiers were picked off by the City Hunter due to the Predatorsâ different vision modes from their biomask. So at that moment, the OWLF probably underestimated the Predators and assumed from limited intel that they can track your heat signatures. Secondly, Predators demonstrated from that point that theyâre very adaptive to their environment and they are always advancing their technology.
2004 - The Weyland Report and Gunnison Incident (Alien vs. Predator and Requiem (2007, but in lore it takes place in 2004) )
In this timeline, we are now in the events of Alien vs. Predator. With the true identity of Charles Bishop Weyland in doubt, much of the rest of the 2004 incident is questionable because the Weyland-Yutani history is unclear and the actor Lance Henrikson played different people with the last name Weyland, good lord...it hurts my head. Thatâs one of the few reasons why fans express doubt that AVP is canon, despite the connections and evidence given.Â
Anyway, the AVP story...
Independently wealthy, Weyland gathered a small crew of experts from a variety of fields to investigate the Bouvet Island "temple" location ("Alien vs. Predator").Â
Upon arrival at the ruins of Razorback Station, this field team, along with Charles, claimed to enter the temple via a tunnel alleged to be of recent Yautja creation.Inside the temple, the team entered a conflict between Yautja and the reawakened Xenomorphs. Weyland is alleged to have died in the temple to help other field team members to escape. One survivor, Lex (Sanaa Latham), claims to have allied with the Yautja to push back a possible Xenomorph escape. With the temple and its Xenomorph queen destroyed, the alliance was successful. There is no clear evidence of Weyland's actual goal. However, a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer may have been a factor in his actions.
Itâs unknown what happened to Lex after the events. Lex's story is uncorroborated, though OWLF later recovered a Yautja-style bone spear. Once again, the OWLF is involved!Â
Next, Requiem and the events take place in the same year of the first film.Â
The mystery of Charles Bishop Weyland is compounded by the involvement of someone who claims to be a Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip), who may have also released the initial Razorback Station report. Miss Yutani's secondary report alleges that a further situation arose from the Bouvet Island temple encounter, involving a mutated Yautja, or rather a Predator with Xenomorph characteristics.Â
This chaotic and generally unreliable report suggests that not only was the town of Gunnison, Colorado, at the mercy of a Yautja attempting to contain this "Predalien" situation but that it went out of control so far as to require a scorched earth response from the United States military. To date, there is no confirmed tactical nuclear response â much less on U.S. soil â and no global radiation reading to suggest the Gunnison event happened. In truth, this situation may be best explained as a false flag report left as a watermark to trap an agent selling confidential documents with the event taken out of context by conspiracy theorists.
2010 - The Game Preserve Abduction (Predators)
The introduction of Bad Blood Predators and different Predator species. Through unknown circumstances, a team of highly trained killers with vastly different origins were abducted by several hunters and placed on another planet that takes on the likeness of Earthâs jungles (and hilariously enough, this literally blew my mind XD).Â
When the group encountered a Yautja that is tied to a tree, Isabelle, one of the Elites, recognized the alien and referenced the 1987 Guatemalan massacre and Dutchâs survival. Originally, the film crew had the idea of bringing Dutch back into the movie as the most experienced member, but supposedly Arnold had other plans going on and the film likely would cause schedule issues.
Oh yeah, everything is all coming together. Itâs all making sense. Now weâre talking.Â
2018 -Â Precursor to alleged invasion threat
As much as I donât care for this movie, I unfortunately need to include it because it expands more on the Predators and the entire franchise. Anyway, The Predator...
Once again, the annoying and stubborn OWLF is BACK! OWLF's later reports of an incident within an unidentified U.S. suburb ("The Predator," 2018) do not leave investigators with a clear understanding of events. What is known is that a Yautja landed near an active military operation, getting into conflict with soldier Quinn McKenna.Â
During this time, the OWLF is replaced by another organization that is more intent on studying the Yautja. Meet...Stargazer! Stargazer is the new and better OWLF! Who is the man in charge of the operations? Meet Sean Keyes, son of Peter Keyes from Predator 2!
The Fugitive Predator, despite killing humans and being violent, wanted to deliver a weapon called the Predator Killer to mankind to fend off the incoming Predator invasion (not really a Predatorâs forte but then again, not all Predators follow the same tradition and rules.)
This film made reference to the first and second films, connecting the lore all together, despite a few errors with the dates (CinemaSins on Youtube pointed out this silly mistake lol).
2020 and beyond (2025) - OWLF Expansion and more hunters become active. (Predator Hunting Grounds)
Surprise surprise. The video game Predator Hunting Grounds ties majority of the films into its lore. Itâs confirmed that Dutch is alive and Isabelle managed to escape the game preserved planet from Predators. Both characters are now dedicating their lives in hunting and killing Predators.Â
Itâs suggested in the game that more Predators are becoming active and according to Dutch, better and more skilled hunters are encountered almost daily. This introduces the female Predators into the franchise and as said in my previous posts, the females donât screw around, but the same could be said about the males.Â
The human race at this point is sparking up a lot of interest for the Yautja species. They are sending in a lot of hunters to go after people the Yautja deem as worthy prey. If we connect this back to The Predator movie, this could the supposed invasion that the Fugitive Predator was trying to prevent.Â
Itâs unknown what happened to the Predator Killer suit, so I suspect it is âretgoneâ out of the story or the Predators managed to retrieve it from Stargazer.Â
The lore can be told from the audio entries made by Dutch and Sean Keyes. Itâs revealed that after the first movie, Dutch has been secretly providing information for the OWLF about his encounter with these hunters and possibly the one who told them about Predators seeing heat signatures through their mask. Dutch met Seanâs father in a hospital where the former mercenary was suffering radiation sickness from the wrist bomb of the Jungle Hunter. Luckily for him, Dutch discovered that the blood of the Yautja can prolong a humanâs lifeforce. This explains why Dutch is able to continue fighting and killing Predators, despite being an old man. He even said that he feels like his younger self again.Â
Up until now, Dutch is determined to push the Predators back and willing to send a message to them that humans are not to be messed with. However, the hunters arenât backing down from a challenge. Iâm not sure how long Dutch has to continue fighting because after his encounter with a female Predator, he shouldâve been dead, but I guess the female knew who he was and was setting a lesson and a warning that not all hunters are the same nor pushovers.Â
Long story short, this is what I believe is accepted as canon to the franchise, despite a few retcons and oversights.Â
Prey
Predator
Predator 2
Alien vs. Predator
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
Predators
The Predator
Predator Hunting Grounds (video game)Â Â
Anyone that wishes to add onto these are welcome to do so.Â
