Shane Black’s The Predator has endured quite a turbulent run-up to its September release. The film’s first trailer left many fans unimpressed, while the tonally-different trailers that followed have done a better job of exciting fans but also have left come confused over just what the final product will look like. And now we’ve got word that the film has undergone some pretty extensive reshoots.
Reshoots aren’t always a bad sign, though, and it sounds like Black’s reshoots should leave fans pretty pleased. After some less-than-stellar reactions to a screening of the film that reportedly included friendly Predators and a number of hybrid Predator creatures, Black has now removed all of the film’s good guy Predators and all but one of the hybrids, ensuring a more classic rendition of the violent aliens. The reshoots also change the film’s climax, altering some characters’ deaths and setting up a thrilling nighttime battle against the Upgrade Predator — that huge, scary Predator in the trailer — in the woods.
Black’s main goal with these reshoots, per Empire via Bloody Disgusting, was to make the film more frightening. “The first time we shot the third act it was daytime,” Black told Empire. “It’s all this spooky stuff but then its bright sunlight. It just didn’t work. So I said, ‘Ummm, can we do this again at night?'”
Did Black’s reshoots accomplish their goal of making the Predator scary again? We’ll have to wait until the film hits theaters on Sept. 14 to find out.
