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The Feral Predator was a Yautja that conducted a hunt during the September of 1719 across the Great Plains, which was at the time territory of the Comanche tribe.
After wreaking havoc against both the Comanche and French trappers, he eventually came into conflict with a Comanche healer and aspiring hunter, Naru; he was ultimately defeated and killed by her after she managed to use the creature's advanced weaponry against him.
Characteristics and Traits[]

Head size comparison between Wolf and the Feral Predator.
The Feral Predator was a unique specimen amongst typical Predators, not only possessing a visually distinctive appearance, but also sporting weapons and gadgetry that were far more primitive compared to other examples seen in Yautja culture (though still far superior to that of Humans). This was due to the creature's unique background - presumably hailing from a different, hotter hemisphere of the Predator homeworld, essentially being a 'desert Predator'.[3][4]

Full body view of the Feral Predator, with his Wrist Shield.
Another, more minor difference between the Feral Predator and others is his very blood - while still green in color, it appears as a much darker shade of green, and is noticeably less luminous than other Predators' blood.
Feral Predator culture supposedly held a reverence toward bones, not only for the fashioning of their armor and equipment, but also being key to the subspecies' diet as well.[5][6]
Owing to his name, the Feral Predator displayed large degrees of savage behavior. Indeed, the Predator seemed to specifically enjoy close combat over stealth, and frequently and actively engaged in close-quarter skirmishes. He notably wrestled with and killed a bear with his bare hands. Quite adept at armed combat, he employed the use of several unique weapons that he used to dispatch numerous victims. He was also extremely durable, and showcased a massive pain tolerance, able to shrug off most injuries, including being impaled through the chest, being shot in the back of the head and even losing his right arm.
The Feral Predator possessed a curiosity towards the dynamic between local fauna within the Great Plains, and, upon encountering several of its inhabitants, he slowly built up his repertoire of trophies, working his way to larger and deadlier prey, from snakes and wolves, to bears and humans.
Though it is unknown if the Feral Predator shared the same code of honor as his more well-known cousins, he at least bore some traits reminiscent of an honorable Yautja, taking little interest in prey he deemed inadequate for his collection - he notably ignored Naru for much of his hunt, until she eventually posed a threat to him. However, this sense of familial sporting behavior had its limits, and the Predator would employ his cloak in combat whenever necessary; he notably engaged with the wolf and grizzly bear fully cloaked, and when he fought Taabe, who was wounding him frequently, the Feral Predator eventually cloaked himself and subsequently stabbed Taabe in the back. He also killed a maimed Raphael Adolini after merely startling him, in addition to resorting to the use of his Bolt Gun after being overwhelmed by Naru in their final confrontation despite appropriately handicapping himself for much of their duel.
Biography[]
Arrival[]
- "A long time ago, it is said, a monster came here."
- ―Naru (from Prey)
The Feral Predator arrived on Earth during the early 18th century, landing in North America in the middle of Comanche territory. Though cloaked, the sight of his hidden ship which passed through the region's stormy clouds was witnessed by Comanche woman Naru, who assumed it to be a thunderbird.
From there, the Predator began his search for worthy prey to hunt, claiming his first trophy by killing and skinning a rattlesnake. Naru was the first to grow suspect of the hunter's activity in the area, noticing the remains of the flayed rattlesnake and the creature's unusually large footprints.

The cloaked Feral Predator holding up the corpse of a grizzly bear.
Later, the Predator observed a wolf hunting a rabbit in an open field. After interrupting the creature, it angrily bit the Predator on the leg before he killed the wolf, severed its head and claimed it as a trophy. Settling into a nearby cave, he removed the flesh and fur from the canine's skull using his disintegrator gas, hanging his new trophy across his body. Upon hearing the barks of Naru's dog Sarii, he departed once again.
Stumbling upon skinned buffalos, the Feral Predator noted the presence of a burnt cigar and flowers Naru left behind for them, lingering there a bit before moving on. Subsequently, he would come to witness Naru herself being attacked by a grizzly bear. Seeing the animal as a worthy challenge, he battled with it with his bare hands, and although the large mammal was able to wrestle the Feral Predator onto the ground, the Yautja delivered a death blow that broke the bear's neck before holding the beast above his head. Roaring in triumph at his new kill, and bathed in the grizzly bear's blood, he noticed Naru fleeing, intriguing him, and he decided to follow her.
Hunt within the Great Plains[]
Tailing Naru, the Predator would witness her being subdued by a search party sent out to look for her by her brother, Taabe. Using his Bolt Gun, he would first dispatch the party leader, Wasape, before engaging in a brief duel with Huupi and Ania - he would go on to brutally kill both. Witnessing Naru flee once again, he would kill the remaining member of the party, Itsee, before catching up to Naru, now incapacitated in a bear trap. Realizing her handicap, the Predator grew disinterested, and allowed Naru to be knocked out and taken away by a party of French voyageurs led by Big Beard, whom the Feral Predator had come into conflict with at an earlier point.

The Feral Predator uncloaking.
The voyageurs decided to use Naru and Taabe as bait within a scorched meadow in an attempt to lure the creature into a trap. However, the hunter was already one step ahead, silently dispatched several lookouts who were in charge of the Frenchmen's horses and ignored the terrified Taabe and Naru who eventually realized the Yautja's modus operandi. The Yautja nonetheless was briefly caught in the Frenchmen's trap and restrained with a net, though this only angered him, and he easily escaped the trap and proceeded to slaughter the voyageurs with ease, utilizing an array of unique armaments, including a Netball, Wrist Shield and Cut Clamp. The Feral Predator finished the rest of the Frenchmen with several proximity mines.
After using his Medicomp to tend to wounds he suffered, the hunter went to the voyageurs' camp to search for survivors, unaware that Naru was there as well. Searching the area, he stepped on a wounded Raphael Adolini by mistake, causing him to scream and prompting the startled Yautja to kill him. The shocked Feral Predator then saw Naru's dog, Sarii, approaching him and aimed his Bolt Gun at him, before being ambushed by Taabe.
As a duel ensued, Naru, struggling to properly load the flintlock pistol Adolini gave to her, noticed how his projectiles were tracked toward where his Bio-mask's targeting lasers were pointed. Overwhelmed by Taabe's relentless assaults, the Feral Predator activated his cloak to distance himself from his opponent, allowing him to impale Taabe from behind with his Wristblades. Moving onto Naru, he observed that she was wielding a weapon, and slowly approached her. With the last of his strength, Taabe distracted the Predator by stabbing his leg with an animal skull. The predator finished him with blow from his Combistick, buying Naru and Sarii enough time to escape.
Duel with Naru and Death[]
- "This is as far as you go. No more. This is it."
- ―Naru to the Feral Predator (from Prey)
Later during the nightfall, Feral Predator, drawn by Naru's whistling, appeared in front of Big Beard and soundly decapitated him with his separable Combistick. Unfortunately for him, it was a setup the young Comanche warrior made against him; having discovered the Yautja's vulnerability and modus operandi, she used the Frenchman, whose leg she severed with Cut Clamp obtained while tending to Andolini's wounds, as the bait and consumed orange totsiyaa to mask her presence. As soon as Feral Predator was distracted by his new trophy, Naru shot him point-blank in the back of the head with her flintlock and proceeded to steal his fallen Bone Mask to use against him, much to his fury.
Tracking down his unexpected adversary, Feral Predator found Big Beard's severed leg at a forest clearing with quicksand Naru stumbled upon prior — the same clearing she chose as their field of battle. There, Naru ambushed him from a nearby tree, leading to a violent battle between both combatants. During the ensuing duel, she successfully severed her opponent's right arm along with wrist blades attached on it, though the Yautja was still a formidable opponent despite such handicap and Sarii's assistance, which didn't help by the sudden activation of the failsafe in Feral Predator's Separable Combistick which prevented her from using it against him further. Their battle came to a standstill after the Yautja failed to slice the young Comanche warrior's head off with his Wrist Shield because she responded by dragging herself toward between rocks to halt the shield and then unexpectedly tore one of his mandibles to stab him with. At that point however, Feral Predator had been weakened enough for Naru to drag him into the nearby quicksand seemingly to drown him. Still, with his remaining strength, the Yautja lifted himself to the surface and resorted to the use of his Bolt Gun. The Yautja fired his weapon and narrowly missed her, only to realize his opponent had one last surprise in her sleeve; having foreseen this, she had placed his stolen Bone Mask nearby with its targeting laser aimed at his face. As a result, the dismayed Feral Predator could only watch as the projectile burst through his skull, killing him and ending his hunt.
Afterward, Naru brought his severed head back home and succeeded her brother as the next war chief of her tribe. Her efforts would subsequently earn the attention of several Yautja ships, who would arrive nearby Naru's camp at some point following the Feral Predator's defeat.
List of Notable Victims[]
- "I think this creature is a hunter, looking for the strongest beast."
- ―Raphael Adolini regarding the Feral Predator (from Prey)
- Rattlesnake
- Wolf
- Grizzly Bear
- Wasape
- Huupi
- Ania
- Itsee
- Waxed Moustache (likely)
- Raphael Adolini
- Taabe
- Big Beard
Equipment[]
- Bone Mask
- Cloak
- Wristblades
- Wrist Gauntlet
- Separable Combistick
- Bolt Gun
- Netball
- Cut Clamp
- Disintegrator Gas
- First Aid Gun
Though infinitely deadlier than the human weaponry used against him, the Feral Predator's arsenal of equipment was distinctively more basic than a normal Yautja assortment. Most notably, he omitted any use of a Plasmacaster - instead using a Bolt Gun with a special tracking system whose mechanism was similar to the former. He also made use of a unique metallic Wrist Shield that could not only block incoming projectiles, but also be utilized as a weapon itself.
Trivia[]
- The Feral Predator was the second Yautja to conduct a hunt within the American Frontier, the first being the Ozarks Hunter from the comic book Predator: Hell Come a Walkin'.
Behind the Scenes[]
Director Dan Trachtenberg explained that the Feral Predator's different design from the classic "Jungle Hunter" kind is due to being a different sub-species, from perhaps a different continent on the Predator homeworld:
- "I think this guy's perhaps from a different hemisphere of the planet and a little bit of a different breed. So even his look is a little new, it's familiar, but new."[7][8]
Concept artist Michael Vincent explained the design of this new sub-species in a Twitter thread on August 11, 2022.[9][10] While the prior Predators evolved in jungle regions of their homeworld, this subspecies is from a desert region (it is essentially a "Desert Predator", though the production team calls it the "Feral Predator" due to its savagery). The need for moisture retention and heat dissipation explains several details:
- "Genetic isolation with different environmental pressures yields a variant of Yautja: adapted to a drier climate, [it has] thinner, waxier dreads, thicker oral tissue, & scalier skin for moisture retention. Thicker brow houses heat sensitive organs, which the mask is designed to interface with. Thinner casque loses less water." [Thus, its face looks "flatter" because instead of the mandibles extending far beyond the forehead, the larger forehead extends forward about as far as the jaws.] "Breathes primarily through spiracles in the casque (not those 2 big cavities, those are heat sensitive 'pits'!), an adaptation for a less jungly, less oxygenated atmosphere".
Also, due to evolving in a desert, bone from dead animals became a major part of its diet and culture, though Feral Predator's subspecies is also known to consume other types of food such as plants and meat;
- "Bone has a special cultural significance to the Feral subspecies - not only their armor but as a diet staple. A careful look at the mouth reveals molars outfitted for osteophagy. [It has larger jaws because it] favors crushing bite for different diet."
- "And fun fact... the Feral subspecies is omnivorous... crushing palate in the back of the mouth yields a diverse diet..."
Dan Trachtenberg confirmed to Empire that he excluded the Plasmacaster from the Feral Predator's list of equipment, finding such tech being 'an instant win button'. He nonetheless reassured the fight against the Yautja could be as exciting as possible without stripping it of its advantages and has a couple of new equipment for the audience to see to get around the fact that he lacked some of equipment featured in previous installments.[11][12]Among such new equipment was the Bolt Gun, a speargun variant designed by Justice Joseph and Alec Gillis, and is described by the latter as a precursor to the Plasmacaster.[13]
Dane DiLiegro ended up becoming the Predator because Dan Trachtenberg sought a different type compared to Kevin Peter Hall's "WWF 1987 wrestler standoff type thing", leading to someone with a more 'feline' athletic body,[14][15] that would also allow what Alec Gillis described as "some elegance and fluidity of movement as opposed to the Hulking Stuntman School of Suit Performance."[16] Prior to filming, DiLiegro lost 25 pounds and spent months training parkour, martial arts and strengthening his neck due to the new design of the Predator, which sat the 15 pound animatronic head on top of his head (the old Predators had heads akin to masks, but this could not be done due to the new facial features such as more spaced eyes), forcing him to shoot every scene essentially blind. The costume, which had the challenge of being flexible for the fight choreography while resistant enough to withstand the location's weather,[16] weighted 80 lbs. and was primarily made out of foam latex, which DiLiegro noted as being "essentially a sponge" getting heavier and wetter as he sweated under the summer sun.[14]
- "He’s in it for the hunt, he’s in it for the competition. It’s no secret that he’s a giant, muscular, athletic, trained killer. But there’s a sense of hubris with him, lack of refinement. Maybe he’s younger - I don’t know. It’s a game. It’s about outsmarting him."
In Dane DiLiegro's admission regarding his character, Feral Predator was a trained Yautja driven by the desire to prove himself throughout his hunt. DiLiegro further stated that the fight against Feral Predator would be the matter of outsmarting him given to his overconfidence that hinted his young age. Such statements reflected how Naru fared better against him through elaborate strategy as opposed of brute force and Feral Predator's behavior throughout his hunt which quick to remind some fans to recently promoted Blooded Yautjas at best as well as disappointment on French voyageur's capabilities in comparison of Comanche warrior he confronted previously.[17] That being said, whether Feral Predator's kin shared the same Honor Code and hierarchy as mainstream Yautjas such as Jungle Hunter Clan are yet to be revealed up to this point.
An initial pitch by artist Farzad Varahramyan for the Feral Predator's armor design was to have strips of his armor stitched and/or branded onto the creature's flesh, though this was ultimately scrapped.[18]
Appearances[]
- Prey
- Predator: Day of the Hunter (indirect mention)
Gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
References[]
- ↑ CBR.com, 11 August 2022.
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 11 August 2022
- ↑ CBR.com, 11 August 2022.
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 11 August 2022
- ↑ CBR.com, 11 August 2022.
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 11 August 2022
- ↑ CBR.com, 3 August 2022
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 8 June 2022
- ↑ CBR.com, 11 August 2022.
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 11 August 2022
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 12 June 2022
- ↑ CBR.com, 12 June 2022
- ↑ avpgalaxy.net, 12 June 2022
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Abrams, Sean (August 19, 2022). "Prey Star Dane DiLiegro on Going From Pro Athlete to Bloodthirsty Predator". Men's Health.
- ↑ Navarro, Meagan (August 15, 2022). "‘Prey’: Meet Dane DiLiegro, the Latest Actor to Play the Iconic Predator [Interview]". Bloody Disgusting.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "How ‘Prey’ Forged a New Look for an Iconic Sci-Fi Creature" (in en).
- ↑ https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/prey-redesigned-predator-alien-1234749733/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/
- ↑ https://tylerkirkhamart.com/products/whatnot-sale
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2022/08/23/farzad-varahramyan-shares-predator-face-mask-weaponry-shield-and-armor-concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2022/08/23/farzad-varahramyan-shares-predator-face-mask-weaponry-shield-and-armor-concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2022/08/23/farzad-varahramyan-shares-predator-face-mask-weaponry-shield-and-armor-concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2022/08/23/farzad-varahramyan-shares-predator-face-mask-weaponry-shield-and-armor-concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/
- ↑ https://www.avpgalaxy.net/predator-movies/prey/gallery/concept-art/