The Alien and Predator franchises have been gradually coming back to life in recent years. On the Predator side of things, we’ve most recently had the movie Prey, while Alien is about to get a brand-new live-action movie and television series. As it turns out, however, Disney also has an Alien vs. Predator anime locked in their vault.
This exciting news comes via former Fox Executive Joshua Izzo who spoke with the Perfect Organism podcast. It’s one thing if the series had only been greenlit. But Izzo insists that the series is completely finished – and that it was supposed to have been released as far back as 2016.
Here’s what he shared about the basis of the project:
“This was going to be initially released on Alien Day in 2016. That was the plan. Now what happened was, as we were going forward Ridley came back to Fox and said ‘I want to make another alien movie.’ This was going to be Covenant. And Shane came and said ‘I want to make a Predator movie’ which was going to be The Predator. AvP as a brand was something that was frowned upon at the time at Fox because those movies underperformed but meanwhile the intellectual property…just those words put together – Alien versus Predator – from a consumer products and a publishing perspective still worked.”
Furthermore, he described some of the Predator characters that were featured throughout the series:
“One of the Predators is a cyborg and has a fully cybernetic arm and a cybernetic mandible. It’s super rad. One we called Bone because all of his weapons were made out of giant tusks. He was so cool.”
And yes, the series is completely finished:
“There is, sitting at Disney now, at 20th Studios, 10 episodes of a fully completed Alien vs. Predator anime series that I produced,” Izzo said. “It’s done. It’s in the can. It’s mixed; it’s finished. It was produced and story cracked by Eric Calderon and Dave Baker, two unbelievably crazy talented guys.”
He also hinted at a director involved with the project. Though it can’t be confirmed, it’s believed to be none other than Shinji Aramaki. Fans will know Aramaki for their work on Halo Legends, Appleseed, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
The timeline for the series is said to take place into the far future of both franchises. Specifically after the events of the two live-action movies in addition to Alien: Resurrection. As such, it’s unfortunate that the series remains locked away, and it’s unknown when – or if – the Alien vs. Predator anime will ever see the light of day.