Prey, the prequel to the venerable film series Predator, has reportedly undergone character design changes better to fit the story and timeline of the 2022 film.
Dane DiLiegro, who plays the role of the primary antagonist, The Predator, in the prequel, shared this information in an interview. He also provided specifics on the altering process and how the decision was initially made.
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Original Predator Design
The Predator film series is recognized as a staple of science fiction and horror.
Those who grew up watching the movies since the franchise began with its debut film, Predator, in 1987 have a deep-seated fondness for this series.
The movie was so loved by the audience that merely three years later it was followed by its sequel, Predator 2, in 1990. So far, there have been four previous Predator movies in the franchise (excluding the recent prequel, Prey, released in 2022).
The look of the antagonist killer alien in the movies, commonly referred to as the Predator, was kept technologically advanced considering the fact that the creature had to meet the requirements of being an extraterrestrial, which is usually stereotyped by the high-end tech they possess.
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The head of the predator resembled that of an arthropod with long, pipe-like attachments protruding from the back of its head. The body of this creature is bigger than humans, highly immune to most human weapons, and/or very quick to recover from any external damage. They aren’t as agile as they should’ve been as hunters, but they make up for it with the advanced technology that makes hunting easier for them.
They usually possess a metal headpiece that is wrapped around their head and face like a helmet and armor made of metal as well.
The Alien’s Design Change In Prey (2022)
Since the new Predator movie is set almost 300 years prior to the beginning of the actual franchise, it is understandable why the look and technology of the alien must be changed.
A creature with as advanced weaponry as the one in the first movie in the franchise won’t possibly exist in the early 18th century. Thus, some necessary changes to the design of the creature were made by the production team to fit the era of the movie more accurately.
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For example, the weapons used by the creature to hunt humans were tampered with in order to make them more primitive, though still similar to, those used in the first four films. Apart from this, as revealed by Dane DiLiegro, the character had to be more agile now that it could not necessarily use good weapons as its upcoming generations would, and would engage in more hand-to-hand combat.
“Dan gave us a couple of keywords initially: feral animalistic, wild, primal. So I knew we were kind of departing from the stand-up, humanoid, WWF wrestler, Dan did not want that 1987 wrestler-style Predator, he wanted something dynamic, he wanted something lean, that was more violent and quicker. But the start of all that is the design and the builds of this character and what Tom and Alec did, they really had their hands full, because now they have to design a suit that can stand up to the physicality in the way this character can move. That’s a tricky design, because the more you go into that movement-dynamic character, the more the suit has to articulate and there’s folds, you you have to prevent from happening. Things that we shot in the middle of day, in broad daylight, it’s very easy for things to be exposed. And the way they put the suit together with newer technologies today, compared to in the past, it was a synergy of a lot of creativity and technology. You saw the final result; it looks great.”
Whatever the changes may have been, they did hinder the popularity of this prequel at all, as it proceeded to become the highest-rated Predator movie in the franchise’s history so far!
Prey (2022) is currently streaming on Disney+ since its release by the Hulu Network.
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SOURCE: Screenrant.
