'The Predator' 2018 Cast Revealed: Kids, Keffiyehs And No Arnolds In Sight

Shane Black, director and co-writer of the upcoming Predator sequel, The Predator, posted the first photo of the incomplete cast to Twitter. The image has much of the cast decked out in tactical wear or vaguely military fatigues, but each cast member is outfitted differently, suggesting it won’t be a unified special forces unit going up against the big game hunting alien, like in the original Predator.

But take a look at the photo and draw your own conclusions:

From left-to-right we’ve got Sterling K. Brown (American Crime Story), Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Boyd Holbrook (Narcos), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Keegan-Michael Key (Don’t Think Twice). Black is crouched. Oh, and there's no Arnold Schwarzenegger, you may have noticed.

Other than the kid, Brown is the only The Predator cast member unarmed and seemingly in civilian wear. But between Key’s keffiyeh and Rhodes’ camo vest, it doesn’t look like anyone is wearing Army standard issue. Perhaps they’re mercenaries? Or part of a local crackpot militia?

Whatever the plot turns out to be, Black is probably the guy to pull it off. Not only is Black writing the movie with creature-feature virtuoso, Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad), not only has Black already written some of the best action movies ever made (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Lethal Weapon), but he has even gone up against the Predator before, as a cast member in the original (his character, Hawkins, is the first to die).

Black revealed a few more details about The Predator, including that it would be “framed as a hunt,” whatever that means:

And also that The Predator will be rated R, because “spines bleed… a lot.”

We’ve still got a ways to go until The Predator ’s Feb. 9, 2018 release date, but I can be patient if it means finally getting a sequel worthy of the original.