Predator: Killer of Killers

In 2022, director Dan Trachtenberg reinvigorated the Predator franchise by taking the story back in time and investing in character. Prey (especially the Comanche language dub) unveiled thrilling new directions for the hunt to take—directions Trachtenberg picks up with three short, animated installments in Hulu’s Predator: Killer of Killers.

The anthology moves between three different earth-bound time periods: Viking conquest, feudal Japan, and WWII. Each short is focused on an individual warrior—one whose cunning and skill draws the attention of a predator on the hunt.

While the overall animation style can be tiresome, there are sequences that impress, even wow. This is not a kids’ cartoon. There’s carnage aplenty, and when it’s at Ursa’s (Lindsay LaVanchy) hands, it’s nasty business gloriously rendered.

The first and best installment, that of Ursa the Viking, packs the screen with visceral action and memorable characters. It also hits on themes of family, loyalty and vengeance that Trachtenberg and co-writer Micho Robert Rutare return to in the second installment. Here, Samurai brothers do battle with the beast, before an alien invader sets his sits on a cunning young mechanic turned fighter pilot in WWII.

Each story boasts a quick, engaging, violent narrative that adds a bit of fun to the canon. The wrap up, which enshrines these individual tales into a larger mythology, feels cynical and uninspired by comparison.

Credit Trachtenberg, along with co-director Joshua Wassung, for continuing to push the IP in new directions. But the Predator series has long understood its flexibility and shown a willingness to experiment. Some of these experiments (Prey) have worked better than others (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem). But most of the efforts have been, at the very least, entertaining.

Predator: Killer of Killers likewise entertains. And it fills the gap between 2022’s top tier Predator effort and Trachtenberg’s next adventure in the series, due out later this year.