Arnold Schwarzenegger In Talks for Long-Awaited Predator Comeback After Multiple Meetings with Dan Trachtenberg

For everyone who has been asking if Arnold Schwarzenegger will ever suit up as Dutch again: this is the closest the needle has felt to moving in years. Dan Trachtenberg has met with Arnold more than once, and the producers are openly saying the door is cracked. With Predator: Badlands landing this Friday, the timing is not subtle.

Quick catch-up: where Dutch left the franchise, and where he popped back up

• Predator 2 (1990) hit without Arnold, which bummed out a lot of people. There were plans to bring him back in some capacity, but they fell apart.
• The series kept rolling without him: Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Predators, The Predator, Prey, the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, and now Predator: Badlands arriving this Friday.
• Studios tried to snag him for quick cameos in Predators and The Predator. He passed because he did not want to just pop in and wave; if he returns, he wants something substantial.
• He did lend his voice as Dutch in the video game Predator: Hunting Grounds.
• Dutch finally surfaced again with a blink-and-you-miss-it (technically unconscious) cameo in the animated Predator: Killer of Killers. At the time, that moment was teased as a possible doorway to a real return down the line.

The new movement: meetings, and the mood

Trachtenberg told Collider he met Arnold, and the vibe was good. The best nugget from that chat is also the most on-brand thing Arnold could say:

'You think I'd get I'll be back yelled at me more, but it's actually Get to the chopper!'

Trachtenberg says Arnold is very aware of how sticky this franchise is, and he seems energized about where Predator is now under Trachtenberg's watch.

Producer Ben Rosenblatt went a step further in an interview with Deadline, saying the team has had more than one meeting about bringing Arnold back. He called getting Arnold into a new Predator the holy grail and said Schwarzenegger has been enthusiastic about what they have done so far. The current plan: let Predator: Badlands open, then resume the talks. The hope is to build something worthy of a full-on Dutch return, not a wink-and-nod cameo.

So, is Dutch actually coming back?

No deal announced yet. But multiple meetings, positive noises from both Trachtenberg and the producers, and Arnold's own stance that he'd only return for a real role all point in the same direction. If they pull it off, it would be the franchise swing fans have been waiting on since 1990. Personally, if they give him something meaty, I'm in.