Arnold Schwarzenegger Teases Predator Comeback as Badlands Director Signals Dutch’s Rematch

Decades after Predator redefined action, new developments hint Arnold Schwarzenegger may be gearing up for a return to the hunt.

File this under things I did not expect to type in 2025: Arnold Schwarzenegger might be circling back to the Predator franchise as Dutch. Not confirmed, not announced, but the tea leaves are… rustling.

So, is Arnold actually coming back?

Producer Ben Rosenblatt, who is behind the newest installment, Predator: Badlands, has been out hinting at exactly that. He told Deadline that getting Arnold back has always been the dream scenario, and at the film's Monday premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, he said Schwarzenegger has already met with director Dan Trachtenberg twice. According to Rosenblatt, Arnold has been genuinely into what they are building so far.

"Obviously, the holy grail of Predator movies would be getting Arnold back in there."

Rosenblatt added that once Badlands is out, they plan to talk more and see if they can make something happen with Arnold. Deadline also shared the tease on November 4, 2025. Translation: nothing locked, but this is a real conversation, not a random wish list.

Where Badlands fits into this

Predator: Badlands is the latest chapter and stars Elle Fanning as Thia. It is being pitched as a more human-focused story for the series, which is funny to say about a franchise that has always featured humans fighting for their lives, but you get the idea. Dan Trachtenberg (who reinvigorated things with Prey) is at the helm.

What Arnold returning would actually mean

Schwarzenegger last played Dutch way back in 1987. That first movie is the template: big, brutal, sweaty jungle warfare with a sci-fi twist. Bringing him back would instantly spike interest and, yes, box office. It would also open the door to revisiting the Central American jungle that started it all.

The series has tried plenty of new blood over the years - Adrien Brody, Walton Goggins, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Mahershala Ali, and Laurence Fishburne in 2010's Predators, plus Boyd Holbrook and Olivia Munn in 2018's The Predator - but that original Arnold energy is the thing everyone still measures against.

The animated curveball: Killer of Killers

Here is the twist that makes this feel more real than a standard rumor: Schwarzenegger already popped up as Dutch in this year's animated entry, Predator: Killer of Killers. Danny Glover's Lieutenant Mike Harrigan from Predator 2 showed up too.

The stinger in that animated story is wild. After the big battle, we see a Predator ship full of sleeping pods - hundreds, maybe thousands. The first pod teases Amber Midthunder's Naru from Prey in cryo-sleep. Later, we see pods with Dutch and Harrigan. Nothing is officially explained yet, but if you are connecting dots, it sure looks like the franchise is setting up a future crossover of its key human protagonists.

The fan-theory version (and it is just that) goes even bigger: the Predators could be cloning or preserving the best human hunters to weaponize them against Xenomorphs from the Alien series. Those two species hate each other, and the franchise has played in that sandbox before. Is that where this is headed? Maybe. It is a juicy setup either way.

Predator live-action movies at a glance

• Predator (1987) - IMDb 7.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 65% - Streaming: Hulu
• Predator 2 (1990) - IMDb 6.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes 36% - Streaming: Hulu
• Predators (2010) - IMDb 6.4/10, Rotten Tomatoes 65% - Streaming: Hulu
• The Predator (2018) - IMDb 5.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes 34% - Streaming: Hulu
• Prey (2022) - IMDb 7.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes 94% - Streaming: Hulu

The bottom line

Arnold and Trachtenberg have met. The producer is openly saying he wants Dutch back. The animated arm just teased Dutch and Harrigan on ice, possibly for a bigger team-up down the road. That is not nothing.

For now, the next mile marker is the new movie: Predator: Badlands hits US theaters on November 7, 2025. If it lands, do not be surprised if those post-release meetings turn into contracts - and mud gets slathered on again.