“Wouldn’t it be cool if BLANK met BLANK?” is a question fans have asked each other for a long time, and occasionally we get an actual, official answer. Whether it be two different rival comic book companies joining forces for a big crossover, a hodgepodge of outside IP inclusions in a fighting game, or two slasher icons finally facing off thanks to the rights to one of them swapping studios, we’ve seen some notable events of this sort through the years. Then the MCU caused an explosion in the idea of a shared movie universe akin to what comic books have long offered, with the likes of the Conjuring Universe, the DCEU (and now the DCU), and more exploring a larger world that allows for characters and concepts to freely interact with each other across multiple projects. Still, Alien and Predator deserve credit for being early to this idea, even as their own exploration of the concept has ebbed and flowed a lot through the decades.
Now, the new film Predator: Badlands is getting attention for its prominent use of Weyland-Yutani, the organization that has been a major part of the Alien franchise since the start. Yet this is hardly the first time Alien and Predator have bled over…and sometimes bled on…each other, with a history that includes everything from fun easter eggs to outright direct crossovers across multiple media. So let’s look back at the history of these two franchises intersecting, and the long road to the idea becoming officially integrated into the core canon films.
It’s All Thanks to Comic Books
The first Predator movie came out in 1987, eight years after the original Alien. A big hit in its own right, Predator’s timing was also notable, coming out just a year removed from the major success of 1986’s Aliens, the first Alien sequel. There were some innate, albeit basic, similarities in the films, beginning on the corporate side. Both movies were owned and released by 20th Century Fox, something that would prove to be key to allowing crossovers without the legal hurdles that can often curtail such a thing. But more than that, both films were about a visually distinctive and notably dangerous alien creature fighting humans, and while the Alien movies were set in the future and Predator in the present, there was no reason to think either species hadn’t been around and would continue to be around for a long time.
In 1988, Dark Horse Comics began publishing Aliens-branded comic books, and it was a quick success, proving the appeal to that title beyond the films. Both 20th Century Fox and Dark Horse were clearly pleased with the results; in 1989, Dark Horse put out their first licensed Predator comic book limited series as well. Then, well, it’s actually quite impressive how quickly the two were pitted against each other, especially when you consider how new Predator was as a title at all.
There was no reason to think either species hadn’t been around and would continue to be around for a long time. Dark Horse’s Chris Warner is credited with being the one to first suggest bringing the two extraterrestrial threats up against each other in comic book form, telling Syfy Wire in 2018, “It’s a pretty obvious idea. When you say, ‘Ali vs. Frazier, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Aliens vs. Predator,’ the ideas just exploded. You hear the adage, ‘It almost wrote itself.' Well, it almost wrote itself.”
As 1989 came to a close, a three-part storyline was launched in the black-and-white anthology series, Dark Horse Presents, except its true interconnected nature was saved for the end. In Dark Horse Presents #34, readers got an Aliens story, and then in issue #35, a Predator story. But then came Dark Horse Presents #36, with a cover that read “Aliens vs. Predator” among the list of that issue's stories and accompanying art showing one of each species in battle. And just like that, a major sub-franchise/spin-off connected to two other established franchises was born.
That first Dark Horse Presents story was in fact a lead-in to a full Aliens vs. Predator five-issue limited series, which launched in the summer of 1990. Some of the core elements of this comic, including the Predators hunting xenomorphs as a rite of passage, and a partnership forming between the intelligent Predators and a human (in this case, Machiko Noguchi, a colonist on the planet Ryushi) against the insect-like, monstrous Aliens, would be explored further and echoed in many other stories that followed.
That first limited series was a hit, and from then on, AVP (as it quickly became commonly referred to) was a go-to concept for Dark Horse, even as they continued to publish independent Aliens and Predator comics. For nearly 30 years, until the rights to both properties would change hands after Disney bought 20th Century Fox, and subsequent Alien and Predator comics would move to Marvel, Dark Horse would revisit Aliens vs. Predator in various limited series, one-shots, and short stories.
The First Movie Connection
When the initial Aliens vs. Predator limited series launched in 1990, it was a big year for Predator in general. Just as that comic series was wrapping up, Predator 2 hit theaters, and with it came the arrival of arguably one of the biggest and most tantalizing easter eggs in franchise movie history up to that point.
In Predator 2’s conclusion, LA cop Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) follows the Predator he’s been battling onto its ship, and comes across a trophy wall which is covered in skulls from previous successful Predator hunts. Some of these skulls are human, but many are from various alien species which were created just for Predator 2…except, most notably, a large freaking ALIEN skull that is very clearly in the shape of a xenomorph.
As someone who is old enough to remember, I can tell you that even in a pre-Internet era, seeing this huge connection between the two franchises actually appearing in a movie was a big deal, and immediately had many fans hyped for the implications and potential. For those of us who had been reading the Aliens vs. Predator comic especially, this seemed like a huge signal that a movie version was imminent, and how cool would that be!?
However, those involved have said there were no real conversations about making an Aliens vs. Predator movie at the time, and that the easter egg was intended as simply a fun reference, not a promise of anything to come. Moreso, they downplayed the AVP comic book as an influence, saying it was more of an in-joke over the fact that legendary special effects makeup creator Stan Winston had worked on both Alien and Predator films.
But that didn’t stop fans from speculating about the possibilities, that’s for sure…
Read All About It
Throughout the 1990s, Dark Horse kept publishing Aliens vs. Predator comics, with the concept eventually expanding into books as well. In 1994, the novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey was published, featuring an adaptation of the first AVP comic book limited series. Besides its subtitle, foreshadowing a title eventually used for a Predator film, this book also stands out as the source for the name “Yautja” for the Predator species, something that would remain true in all Predator media since then and later find its way into the films.
Two more AVP novels – Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet and Aliens vs. Predator: War – would shortly follow to form a connected trilogy with the first book. After that, things stayed quiet on the AVP book front until 2016’s Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon. This book took a page from the original Dark Horse Presents AVP story by serving as the concluding chapter to two earlier novels – Predator: Incursion and Alien: Invasion – that had been released with only Alien or Predator branding, though they told one complete story. More recently, 2022 saw the release of two AVP books – an anthology titled Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey, and the standalone story, Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War.
Games Aplenty
Even if there was nothing being planned for the movies just yet, 20th Century Fox clearly saw that the Aliens vs. Predator concept could have a life beyond the printed page. Shortly before the first AVP book was released, the concept also made its first leap into video games with 1993’s Alien vs. Predator for the SNES, which was a side-scrolling beat-'em-up where you play as a Predator taking on one xenomorph after another. That same year saw a Game Boy release as well, Alien vs. Predator: The Last of His Clan. This was then followed by a different game, also just called Alien vs. Predator, for arcades in 1994, which had four selectable characters to choose from, including two different Predators and two human cyborgs…one of whom was Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Dutch from the first Predator movie! While none of these games are identical in setting or story, they do share the same basic side-scrolling approach to Alien fighting.
That would change with another 1994 release, the Alien vs. Predator game for the Atari Jaguar. This game was AVP’s introduction to the realm of first-person shooters and also had players changing perspectives between humans (in the form of Colonial Marines, as introduced in Aliens), Predators, and even xenomorphs depending on the level.
This quick glut of AVP games would then lead to some time off before the concept was revisited in 1999 with the Aliens Versus Predator PC game, which told its own story while heavily echoing the Jaguar game’s approach via another FPS where you play as an Alien, Predator, or Colonial Marine at various stages. This was followed by a 2002 sequel, the cleverly titled Aliens Versus Predator 2, while the Alien/Predator/Colonial Marine approach would be used yet again in 2003’s PS2 and Xbox release, Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction, though Extinction was instead a real-time strategy game.
As the AVP movies were released in the mid-aughts (more on those in a moment), some forgettable tie-in games came out as well, including an Alien vs. Predator mobile game in 2004 and the PlayStation Portable’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in 2007. And though the decidedly poor reaction to the Requiem movie put an end to the AVP movies (for now?), the concept would still result in a couple more self-contained games.
Another FPS featuring – you guessed it – Aliens, Predators, and Colonial Marines as playable characters, the 2010 Aliens vs. Predator game for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 stands as the most recent full AVP game released for any system, with the exception of 2013’s poorly received AVP: Evolution mobile game. At this point, it’s now been 12 years since the last Alien vs. Predator game, which is the longest gap since they began making AVP games in 1993. somehow, though, I would bet we’ll get another one at some point.
Those Actual AVP Movies
With no individual Alien or Predator film being made at the time, 2004 saw that Predator 2 tease finally get paid off on a movie screen, as 20th Century Fox released Alien vs. Predator in theaters. And man was it…not worth the wait. Yes, sadly, the first AVP movie was a poorly constructed letdown with weak characters and unmemorable action.
The first live-action Alien-connected story to be set in the present day, the film did lean into some established Alien lore by including the character Charles Bishop Weyland. Played by Lance Henriksen, he was a bit of a double reference, since Charles is the founder of Weyland Industries – obviously meant to be the precursor to Alien’s powerful and usually antagonistic corporation, Weyland-Yutani – while his middle name, and the casting of Henriksen, indicated that he was the physical template for Henriksen’s earlier character, the synthetic Bishop in 1986’s Aliens. There were also some echoes of that first Aliens vs. Predator comic, given the story eventually involves a human female protagonist (here, Sanaa Lathan’s Lex) needing to team with a Predator against the mutual threat of the xenomorphs.
The first AVP movie was a poorly constructed letdown with weak characters and unmemorable action. The first AVP movie made enough money to lead to a sequel in 2007, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, which didn’t include any returning human characters, but did continue the earlier film’s amusing set up of a “Predalien,” a xenomorph who had gestated within a Predator. Despite the film’s pre-release hype pushing its R rating (after the previous AVP was PG-13), Requiem was another muddled mess, delivering a poorly conceived, not to mention poorly lit, film that failed to capitalize on what people love about the two title characters. And so that was it for actually putting Aliens and Predators together in a movie, at least for the time being.
It’s worth noting that imagery from the AVP movies was used as the basis for much of the Alien vs. Predator house that was part of Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights in 2014 (in both Orlando and Hollywood) and again in 2015 (Hollywood only). As weak as the AVP movies were, these were very cool and visually impressive houses, and something we’re not likely to see again. Now that Alien and Predator are owned by Disney, an HHN partnership isn’t going to happen again, not unless something major changes in terms of the adversarial theme park dynamic between Disney and Universal.
Even when the Alien vs. Predator movies first came out, it felt like some of the backstory for these two creatures would be difficult to match what the other Alien and Predator films had established. These days, like the comics, books, and games before them, both AVP movies are pretty much considered non-canon to the two separate central movie franchises that begat them…especially once Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus, established a different founder (Peter Weyland, played by Guy Pearce) for a slightly different company now named Weyland Corp. Once again, that Predator 2 xenomorph skull is the only actual core canon connection the two series have had with each other…until now.
The Modern Resurgence
With Alien and Predator now in their Disney-owned 20th Century Studios era, both franchises have been successfully revived in recent years. In 2022, Dan Trachtenberg’s 18th century-set Prey brought an exciting new flair to the Predator films, which he continued in his animated anthology, Predator: Killer of Killers, released this summer. Alien, meanwhile, returned to the big screen via 2024’s Alien: Romulus, while Fargo’s Noah Hawley brought xenomorphs to TV for the first time this year in the FX series, Alien: Earth.
While Romulus and Prey had zero connections to anything outside of their own respective realms, things are changing in a big way in 2025 with Predator: Badlands, which also brings the Predator series back to movie theaters after Prey and Killer of Killers were released on Hulu. In Badlands, one of the central characters – Elle Fanning’s Thia – is an android who teams with a Predator. But she’s not just any android; she’s a Weyland-Yutani synthetic, giving a very prominent role to a character directly connected to Alien lore. Other pre-release material has confirmed the film has plenty of Weyland-Yutani involvement, including a second synthetic played by Fanning, and an army made up of an identical male synthetic.
Trachtenberg told EW this all came about because he first had the idea for a Predator to team with a robot, "and then the next thought was, wait a minute, I know a company that makes robots. And that led to the Weyland-Yutani synth of it all.” Trying to keep expectations in check, he’s also stressed Badlands is a “toe-dip” crossover; don’t expect something more in terms of xenomorphs showing up for a full AVP detour.
But of course, it’s hard not to speculate on what might come next for the two concepts. There remains the potential for another true showdown that hopefully can be accomplished in a more satisfying way than the two AVP movies. We now have both series moving forward on a regular basis – a sequel to Alien: Romulus is on the way – alongside this newfound development of an actual major canon connection between them. And sure, this comes after a lot of other shared universes have been seen in films in recent years, but giving credit where it’s due, the idea of Alien and Predator being connected was first set up literally decades ago. They deserve another chance!
Predator: Badlands will be released in theaters on November 7, 2025.
Connexion
