Arnold Schwarzenegger says Dan Trachtenberg wants him back in the Predator franchise, opening the door to a return for the role that helped make him a movie star in 1987. Schwarzenegger said the two have talked about it and added that FOX studios has “kind of rediscovered Arnold.”
The comments land as The Predator, the 2018 film directed by Shane Black, sits among the 10 most-watched movies on Tubi. That streaming lift comes eight years after the movie struggled at the box office and failed to double its reported $88 million budget, a run that marked a sharp contrast with the staying power the franchise appears to have found online.
Black took over the series after Nimród Antal’s 2010 effort, but the 2018 installment was criticized by many critics and fans for lacking the horror edge that had defined the franchise. Its current rise on Tubi now sits alongside a different phase for Predator, one steered by Trachtenberg and built around 2025’s animated anthology Killers of Killers and Predator: Badlands, which features a starring performance from Elle Fanning.
That shift matters because it has turned a one-time franchise stumble into part of a broader reset. The original Predator film in 1987 introduced Schwarzenegger’s iconic role, and the latest direction suggests the series is no longer treating its past as closed history. The new films have widened the franchise’s reach, while Schwarzenegger’s comments make clear that a reunion is no longer just fan casting.
The tension is in the gap between where the series has gone and where it may still be headed. Predator has moved on without Schwarzenegger for years, yet Trachtenberg’s interest and the actor’s own account point to a real possibility that the franchise’s most recognizable face could return. If that happens, it would mark not only a comeback for Arnold Schwarzenegger, but a sign that the studio sees value in reconnecting the new Predator era to the character that started it all. Schwarzenegger was recently seen on a rare Nobu Malibu date night with Heather Milligan at /8366.
