WhenAlien vs. Predatorfirst came out, fans were both surprised and excited to see the Xenomorphs ofAlienfame and the Yautja from thePredatorfranchise face off on the big screen. This was a crossover idea that nobody who hadn’t read comic books was expecting, and eventhatcrowd never thought we’d ever see an actual movie version of this close encounter.
WhileAlien vs. Predatorand its eventual sequel weren’t the most cherished films in either the Alien or Predator franchises, the crossover series found a life of its own through comic books, novels, video games, and other mediums. In the 2010s,Alien vs. Predatorwas nearly turned into an anime series before the whole project was swept under the rug. CalledAliens vs. Predator: Annihilation, this series was completed for its original 2016 release date, but due to other franchise factors,was promptly canceled by Fox. So what happened?
Alien vs. Predator
The Alien vs. Predator Franchise Has a Rocky History
It had been more than a few years since the Alien vs. Predator crossover series did something worthwhile. Aside from some comic book continuations and tie-in novels, the secondAlien vs. Predator,Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, was largely hated by audiences and critics alike. Despite itssuccess at the box office, the sequel couldn’t live up to thePaul W.S. Andersonoriginal, which was likewise maligned by critics. While the first film wasn’t a masterpiece, it still tried to honor the original material in its own unique way, and its casting ofLance Henriksenas a human Bishop character was a win in our book.Requiem, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in anything other than the battle, and the results were poor at best. Nobody was surprised when any future sequels were canceled, putting the Alien vs. Predatorfranchise on an indefinite hold.
In 2023,Joshua Izzo, the former Director of Licensing at 20th Century Fox (before the Disney buyout), sat down for an interview withPerfect Organism: An Alien Saga Podcast, where he revealed the hidden existence of an Alien vs. Predatoranime series. As the man responsible for creating Alien Day (an annual celebration of all thingsAlien),the first event was held in 2016and was intended to be the release date ofAlien vs. Predator:Annihilation, a 10-part anime continuation of the Alien vs. Predatorfranchise. He explained that the original idea came about after the success thatSam Registerover at Warner Bros. Animation was having with direct-to-videoadaptations of DC Comics source material, with films such asSuperman: Doomsday,Justice League: New Frontier, andBatman: Under the Red Hoodperforming well on home video. Inspired by Register’s comic-to-screen model, Izzo pitched the idea of Fox, and after some deliberation, they went for it (viaAVP: Galaxy).
From there,Eric CalderonandDave Bakerwere hired to help crack the initial story and produced what grew into a multipart anime series. “It was going to be released as three direct-to-DVD and/or streaming movies here in the West,” Izzo explained, “10 episodes on Japan television.” Eventually, directorShinji Aramaki, known forthe animatedStarship Troopermovies, was brought on board, andAlien vs. Predator: Annihilationgrew into an even bigger project that would have tied in not just to the Alien vs. Predator crossover universe, but also to the flagship Alien and Predator franchises as well.
What Is ‘Alien vs. Predator: Annihilation’ About?
Originally, Izzo’s idea was forAnnihilationto directly adapt the original Dark Horse comic booksthat first brought the Xenomorphand the Yautja together. That’s right, long beforeAlien vs. Predatorwas greenlit by Fox, these franchises crossed over in the pages of comic books. The originalAlien vs. Predatorcomic series began in 1989 and followed a woman named Machiko Noguchi, who lived on the colonized planet of Ryushi where she eventually found herself caught in the middle of a skirmish between the Xenomorphs and a Yautja she calls “Broken Tusk.” “We own nearly 30 years of comic book content ofAlienandPredatorandAVP. No rights, no strings,” Izzo pitched to the studio. “Why don’t we adapt the originalAVPcomic book series with Machiko and Broken Tusk? Let’s just do that. Here’s your storyboard.”
Fans have since speculated which Machiko Noguchi-led stories would’ve been the direct basis, with all signs pointing to 1994’sAliens vs. Predator: Prey, 1997’sAliens vs. Predator: Hunter’s Planet, and 1999’sAliens vs. Predator: War. Each of these stories predated the originalAlien vs. Predatorfeature film. This solid start got the ball rolling, with the creatives excited about where to take the material, but when Shinji Aramaki was brought on to helm the project, things changed. Izzo revealed that Aramaki wanted to tell an original tale rather than directly adapting the comic book material. “We all sit down and we craft the story and we crack the idea and we find a place within our established canon. I put it way deep future, post-AVP, post-[Alien: Resurrection],” he revealed. By settingAlien vs. Predator: Annihilationso far into the future, it opened the door for future franchise installments to still consider the anime canon while not messing with the canonicity of any other production. While the Alien vs. Predatormovies were set in the present day,Annihilationwas taking this crossover franchise to new heights.
Originally, the plan was to follow Machiko through all the stages of her life, pulling from the original Dark Horse series for the first few episodes, the limited seriesAliens vs. Predator: Warfor the middle installments, and then concluding with a new ending for the character, with Machiko as an adult working alongside the Yautja. Reportedly, Eric Calderon and Dave Baker wrote a half dozen scripts and hadexhaustive outlines for the rest. But when Aramaki came aboard,he flipped the script and set the whole series on a giant immigration ship with an original Ripley-ish character, according toAnime News Network. Since fans would’ve likely preferred a direct Dark Horse comic adaptation (though any newAVPcontent is welcome), it’s strange that Fox would’ve allowed such drastic changes. But considering they never ended up releasing the anime production, maybe they knew its fate all along.
Why Wasn’t ‘Alien vs. Predator: Annihilation’ Released?
From there,Aliens vs. Predator: Annihilationbegan production, with a new story (and new characters) that likely would’ve blown fans' minds. “One of the Predatorsis a cyborg and has a fully cybernetic arm and a cybernetic mandible,” Izzo teased. “It’s super rad. One we called Bone because all of his weapons were made out of giant tusks.” It’s easy to see whyAnnihilationwould’ve been the flagship release of 2016’s first annual Alien Day.The project would’ve connected itself directly to not just theAlien vs. Predatorseries, but both the Alien and Predator franchises proper. Given that fans have struggled for years to connect the timelines of all three of these series' together in some way or another,Alien vs. Predator: Annihilationmight’ve finally succeeded where other stories have failed.
But when Alien Day 2016 came around,the project was shut down, despite being completed. Izzo explained that the development ofRidley Scott’sAlien: CovenantandShane Black’sThe Predatorwere part of the reasons why the anime production was locked away. “Netflix was interested, so was Hulu. We actually had distribution ready to go butbecause the larger studio had these two feature films utilizing the macro Alien and Predator intellectual properties, the animation got back burnered.” It’s hard to understand why so many Hollywood studios think releasing two versions of the same character/intellectual property will be confusing. Most fans understand the difference betweenBen Affleck’s Batman andRobert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader, and yet both (as well asMichael Keaton’s Dark Knight) appeared in theaters within a year of one another between 2022 and 2023. But for Fox, having two big Alien-related (and Predator-related) productions running at once was a no-go.
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To make matters worse, Izzo explained that not only was the anime project canceled, but an art book and novel, further Dark Horse comic tie-ins, and other tie-in media were being worked on concurrently with the 10-part series. Since then, Scott’sAlien: Covenantcame and went, as did Black’sThe Predator. Hulu releasedPreyin 2022, effectively re-branding the Predator franchise, andAlien: Romulusis set to hit theaters in 2024. And that’s not includingthe upcomingPreysequel,Badlandsor theFXAlientelevision seriesthat are still coming down the pipeline. Furthermore, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels ignore the Predator franchise entirely, and it makes us wonder if Fox (and now Disney) is just completely uninterested in revisitingAlien vs. Predator. “[AVP: Annihilation] was completed almost 7 years ago,” anime series director Shinji Aramaki told fans onX (formerly Twitter)as recently as May 2023. “And unfortunately I don’t know why they didn’t release.” To this day,Aliens vs. Predator: Annihilationis sitting in a vault somewhere collecting dust. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait until the distant future to see this anime in the light of day.
Alien vs. Predatoris available to watch on Hulu in the U.S.
