In the new teaser trailer released Thursday—the first true look at the movie we’ve seen so far—The Predator‘s approach seems more sci-fi than hardcore action, more Stranger Things than Commando. On Halloween, a boy (Jacob Tremblay) discovers a strange device that seems to trigger an alien ship’s crash-landing on earth. Cut to the Official-Looking Government Interrogation Room, where an assassin (Boyd Holbrook, coming off his memorably wicked performance in Logan) unsuccessfully dodges questions about seeing an alien visitor. We also get a shot of Olivia Munn’s scientist character, who has a few theories of her own about the aliens’ arrival on Earth.
What we don’t see: Much violence, gore, outrageously huge guns, or oiled-up biceps. (Ditto for Alfie Allen (aka Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones) or stunner Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck.) Given that this is an all-audiences teaser, playing it safe is pretty standard. But The Predator is almost definitely going to be rated R, and we’ll bet that Shane Black will play this one close to its awesomely adrenaline-soaked origins.
Speaking of those origins: The one person who won’t be defending Earth from The Predator is the guy who probably does it better than anyone else. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who so famously played Major Alan “Dutch” Schafer in the original Predator, turned down a potential role in The Predator, he said last year in an interview with Yahoo! Movies.
“They asked me, and I read it, and I didn’t like it—whatever they offered,” Schwarzenegger said. “So I’m not going to do that, no. Except if there’s a chance that they rewrite it, or make it a more significant role. But the way it is now, no, I won’t do that.”
Here’s the official synopsis of The Predator from 20th Century FOX:
From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.
The Predator, written by Black and Fred Dekker, and starring Holbrook, Munn, Allen, Strahovski, Tremblay, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, Thomas Jane, Augusto Aguilera, and Jake Busey, opens September 14th.
