Predator: Killer of Killers

Predator: Killer of Killers is a 2025 American adult animated science fiction action anthology film directed by Dan Trachtenberg from a screenplay by Micho Robert Rutare, based on a story by Trachtenberg and Rutare. It is the sixth installment in the Predator film series and its first animated installment.

By October 2024, Trachtenberg, who previously directed Prey (2022), had made a secret film in the franchise, set to be released prior to Predator: Badlands (2025). In April 2025, the film's title and release date were revealed. Animation was provided by The Third Floor.

Predator: Killer of Killers was released on June 6, 2025, in the United States on Hulu and internationally on Disney+. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its animation, Trachtenberg's direction, writing, action sequences, musical score, and voice cast.

In Scandinavia in the year 841, Viking warrior Ursa leads her son Anders and their clan on an expedition to destroy the Krivich tribe and their leader, Zoran, who forced Ursa to kill her own father, Einar, the previous Earl of Ladoga, when she was a child. They slaughter Zoran's clan, and Ursa confronts him in his fortress. Initially unable to recognize Ursa, Zoran mocks her for her father's death before Anders beheads him. Immediately after the battle, a Predator ambushes the group, killing Ursa's clan members one by one and seriously injuring Anders. Ursa manages to defeat and kill the Predator after a fierce underwater duel, but Anders succumbs to his wounds and dies in her arms.

By 1609 in Japan, brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi, sons of a samurai warlord, are ordered to duel to determine their father's successor. Kenji refuses to fight, but Kiyoshi attacks and defeats him, scarring his face; disgraced, Kenji flees. Twenty years later, with their father having died, Kiyoshi has become lord of the region, while Kenji has lived in exile as a shinobi. Kenji returns to confront his brother, unaware that a Predator is hunting him. He stealthily infiltrates his brother's castle and defeats Kiyoshi in a sword fight, paying him back for scarring his face by doing the same to him. After Kiyoshi falls into the castle's moat, the Predator ambushes Kenji and kills the remaining guards. Kenji escapes and rescues the injured Kiyoshi, and they briefly clash before the Predator arrives and mortally injures the latter. The brothers join forces and succeed in killing the Predator, although Kiyoshi dies from his injuries.

In 1942, John J. Torres is drafted into the U.S. Navy as a mechanic under the command of Captain "Vandy" Vandenburg. During the North African campaign, his squadron investigates a mysterious aircraft that destroyed another unit and has been attacking the Allies. Taking a battered Grumman F4F Wildcat, he attempts to warn the others, but arrives too late as a Predator fighter pilot in a heavily advanced starship systematically annihilates his squadron until only he and Vandy remain. Vandy sacrifices himself to buy time for Torres, who outmaneuvers the Predator and tricks it into destroying itself; after falling into the water, he fires a flare and is presumably saved by a rescue team. Sometime after World War II ends, Torres is working in his garage, having finished his service and been rewarded with a medal before he is abducted by another Predator ship that leaves behind crop circles in the field.

Torres awakens in a cell alongside Ursa and Kenji, all three having been placed in suspended animation by the Predators after having killed their respective Predators, although they all find that they cannot communicate due to a language barrier. They are all fitted with explosive collars, taken to a gladiatorial arena on an arid, desert alien world, and presented to a Predator warlord Ursa calls the "Grendel King," who commands them to fight to the death, with the winner to fight him. Ursa initially attacks Torres and Kenji, but they convince her to join forces and escape. The Grendel King unleashes a massive alien beast into the arena, which swallows Torres. Ursa and Kenji work together to kill the creature and Torres escapes, stealing a hoverbike and deactivating the explosive collars when the Grendel King attempts to kill them. Finally deciding to work together, the three flee toward the Grendel King's spaceship, although the Grendel King destroys the hoverbike with a thrown bone ax.

Ursa and Kenji battle the Grendel King and badly damage him while Torres tries to figure out how to fly his ship. The Grendel King gains the upper hand against the two warriors and nearly kills them, but Torres uses the engines to blast the Grendel King away; as they attempt to flee, the Grendel King severs Kenji's right arm with a thrown spear and Predator soldiers ground the ship with a harpoon launcher. Telling Torres and Kenji not to avenge her, Ursa uses her shield to slide down the harpoon cable and destroy the launcher, sacrificing herself to let the others escape. Immediately after her capture, the Grendel King rallies a hunting party to pursue the fugitives. Ursa is placed back in suspended animation and stored alongside other captives (human and alien alike) that have also killed Predators, including Naru, Mike Harrigan, and Alan "Dutch" Schaefer.