Prey’s “New” Feral Predator Was Secretly Teased 34 Years Before Disney’s Movie

The 2022 surprise hit Prey introduced a brand-new type of Predator to the franchise, but it turns out that the supposedly new creature was teased many years ago. The deadly hunters that stalk their prey in the Predator franchise are the Yautja, an advanced race of aliens that have collected trophies from all over the galaxy. The deadly Yautja in Prey shares many of the same basic characteristics of the hunters seen in the other Predator movies, but there are a number of noteworthy differences in his appearance and behavior.

Prey is set in the early 18th century on the Great Plains, and features a Yautja known as the “feral Predator” that has some skeletal differences from its modern-day counterparts. While the original was dispatched by the warrior Naru, a Prey mid-credits scene reveals that her defeat of the feral Predator may have caught the attention of some of his fellow Yautja. Their return in either Prey 2 or the upcoming Predator film titled Badlands could help explain why their existence was teased in one of the earliest Predator movies.

Prey’s Feral Predator Skull Appears In Predator 2

It appears as a trophy for the 1990 sequel’s deadly Predator.

The feral Predator differs slightly from his modern-day counterparts from a physiological standpoint. On X, the creature’s designer, concept artist Michael Vincent, explained that the feral Predator is designed to withstand a drier climate, and could even be a subspecies from the Yautja home world. That could help explain why a skull that looks suspiciously like that of the feral Predator appears in the trophy room of the Predator from 1990’s Predator 2.

It seems strange that a Yautja would include a member of its own species in its trophy room. The Yautja famously take the skull (and in some cases spinal column) of their victim as a trophy, and they are constantly seeking new and deadlier threats to test themselves against. In theory, a member of their own species wouldn’t represent a new challenge. The skull of a feral Predator as seen in Prey being in the trophy room points to the modern-day Yautja considering the slightly different variation of their species as a viable target for a hunt.

What The Predator 2 Skull Reveal Means For The Feral Predator Species

The tease potentially reveals some insight into the Yautja home world.

In addition to the differences in appearance, the Yautja in Prey has a somewhat different array of weapons, a different style of movement and some behavioral differences. While the modern-day Predators are often very reliant on their technology, the feral Predator seems to almost prefer hand-to-hand combat, and while he does deploy his arsenal of weapons when necessary, he is far more savage with the up-close killing that he does. His weapons systems are more rudimentary as well; the bolt gun that he yields is a derivative of the plasmacaster of the modern hunters.

All of these differences could point to there being a hierarchy on the Yautja home world, with the modern-day Predators considering these feral Predators to be an inferior version of themselves. The physiological differences point to a geographical separation of the two types of Yautja, although the hunting customs and their code of honor appear to be shared. An ongoing conflict between the two types of Yautja could certainly explain why a feral Predator’s skull shows up in the hunter’s trophy room in Predator 2. Hopefully, the sequels that follow Prey can elaborate on the differences and their conflict.