Director Dan Trachtenberg is bringing Predator fans a new way to enjoy the lore of the universe’s most experienced hunter in the upcoming animated anthology film, Predator: Killer of Killers, which is on Hulu this week.

According to the synopsis, the story follows three of humanity’s fiercest warriors: “a Viking raider guiding her young son on a bloody quest for revenge, a ninja in feudal Japan who turns against his Samurai brother in a brutal battle for succession, and a WWII pilot who takes to the sky to investigate an otherworldly threat to the Allied cause.” But all three are only the latest prey for the warrior of warriors, the Predator.

Trachtenberg told Blavity/Shadow and Act’s Managing Editor, Trey Mangum, what drove his desire to create an animated film that continued the Predator story.

“You know, I really came from the desire to not just make a ‘what if’ exercise and wanted to make sure that the next story we tell was as special as the first one we had,” he said. “Since we had just done [Prey], I wanted the engine for this to be something different, but also I think what made Prey powerful was that it was about a character we cared about. …There was drama and conflict in her story before the Predator even showed up, and that was essential for us.”

Here’s what to know about Predator: Killer of Killers, Hulu’s new animated film from Dan Trachtenberg

“Going into Killers is that now we have to do it three times over, but to make sure that they were stories about characters on a journey that had conflict and action even without the Predator. Then when that bad boy shows up, it becomes a whole next-level experience,” he added. “So that really was the genesis of [creating] an anthology movie. Of course, the big realization was ‘anthology’ doesn’t have to mean The Twilight Zone—it can also mean Pulp Fiction. It could be really one story that’s being told in a more interconnected way.”

The cult classic anime ‘Akira’ helped inspire the wildest scenes in Predator: Killer of Killers

Trachtenberg also talked about how animation allowed him to tell three different stories in such different locales and time periods.

He said, “I would never be able to make a movie set in three different time periods with this level of set piece and action in live action.”

“Hopefully the takeaway is two simultaneous experiences, one, that it still feels cinematic and something that still has proper classical movie grammar, yet also has these moments where it indulges in the medium,” he continued. “Narratively, I don’t think I ever would’ve put a guy on the wing of a plane trying to fix it as he was being shot down midair in a live-action movie. I don’t know that I would have a plane doing a trench run through the city of Casablanca in live action. That was something that just felt like it could only be expressed in animation.”

He cited the cult classic anime film Akira as his inspiration, saying, “I remember my mind being blown in the opening sequence, in the bike chase, when Kaneda jumps off the front thing of the bike and kicks the guy. That never would play [in] live-action, and it has been attempted with sometimes goofy results. But in animation it feels really cool and exciting,” he said. “So certainly, we understood the assignment and it allowed us to express this particular franchise’s expectation and peculiarity in action sequence in a way that people have never seen before.”

Watch the full interview below.

Predator: Killer of Killers is also directed by Josh Wassung of animation company The Third Floor. The film stars the voice acting of Lindsay LaVanchy, Louis Ozawa, Rick Gonzalez and Michael Biehn.

Trachtenberg and Micho Robert Rutare serve as writers, basing their story on characters created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Trachtenberg, Jon Davis, Mark Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, Lawrence Gordon, James E. Thomas, John C. Thomas and Stefan Grube executive produce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Predator: Killer of Killers a movie or series?

It is a movie, however, it has an anthology format, which means the movie can kind of be viewed as several series that come together as one. With this film in particular, it is composed of three stories that merge at the end.

Will Predator: Killer of Killers be on Disney Plus?

Yes, Predator: Killer of Killers is on Disney+ in international territories and it is on Disney+ in the United States via Hulu on Disney+.