Shane Black shares first cast photo from The Predator and reaffirms R-rating

February 20th 2017, 11:42am

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

UPDATE: Shortly after Black's reaffirmation of the R-rating, he shared the first look at the cast of the film, including Sterling K. Brown, Trevante Rhodes, Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jacob Tremblay! Take a look below!

Though the creature hasn’t seen many great iterations since Arny took him on in 1987, Shane Black’s upcoming THE PREDATOR promises to bring the alien hunter back to his glorious, bone-snapping, blood-gushing glory. In this day and age to no one would put it past the studio to want a more marketable PG-13 rated flick, but Black is reassuring fans that’s not gonna happen on his watch.

Teasing something that’s going to happen today, Black followed up by clarifying his artistic intentions with a statement befitting of a talented filmmaker like himself, with the grace and dialect of a king, or some other courtly gentleman:

And, just to be clear… PG-13 is for pussies. Spines bleed… a lot.

— Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 18, 2017

I couldn’t have said it better myself… mostly because I would get grounded.

Back in October Black spoke about approaching the film with the same sort of zeal that the first movie had, saying that people probably weren’t interested in seeing a PG-13 PREDATOR movie. The movie has so far cast Olivia Munn, MOONLIGHT’s Trevante Rhodes, Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Jane, Keegan-Michael Key and more, so try to picture which one is having their spine ripped out. They knew what they signed up for.

Shane Black was an inspired choice to helm the new PREDATOR movie. It would’ve been easy to hire some run-of-the-mill director to give us some regular action flick, but Black’s style is something the series desperately needs. He’s able to wring funny, complex performances from his cast, tip genres on their head, and deliver gleeful violence when it’s suitable. THE PREDATOR will never not be suitable for violence, so expect it by the buckets.

Stay tuned for…whatever it is this means: