The official trailer for Dan Trachtenberg's Prey arrived in 2022 and announced the franchise's most impressive film since the original with a visual intelligence and atmospheric control that signals the film's intentions as something more seriously intended and more cinematically ambitious than any entry in the franchise's recent history. The trailer's most immediately striking quality is its historical specificity: the Comanche Nation setting of 1719, the landscape photography, and the suggestion of something terrifying convey the film's central premise with a visual restraint and tonal intelligence that recalls the most effective passages of McTiernan's original. Trachtenberg understood that the franchise's power lies in the contrast between the Predator's technological superiority and its prey's resourcefulness, and the trailer is built on that understanding with a precision and confidence that makes it feel like the most creatively intelligent franchise entry in a long time. Naru's determination and the historical setting are placed at the heart of the film's appeal, and the trailer delivers both with a sureness that makes watching it feel like a genuine event.
First Impressions
The trailer is immediately the franchise's most visually striking since the original, with the Comanche setting and the historical specificity conveying the film's bold creative decision with real force. The sense of tonal control is established with enough visual intelligence to signal the film's most important quality, and Naru's determination and the historical setting are placed front and centre as the primary selling points. Trachtenberg is placing the franchise's central creature in a context where its technological advantage is even more pronounced, and the trailer makes that feel like a creative revelation rather than a simple change of scenery.
What the Trailer Reveals
The trailer establishes the Comanche setting, conveys Naru's determination, and glimpses the film's most spectacular sequences with enough visual clarity to establish its considerable cinematic ambitions. Midthunder's Naru is shown with enough physical authority and emotional intelligence to establish the character as the franchise's most compelling new protagonist since Dutch, and the combination of historical setting and survival stakes is placed at the heart of the film's identity. The footage makes clear that Trachtenberg intends to deliver both the creature threat and the character depth, and that the two are bound together in a way the franchise's recent entries had failed to achieve.
Music and Sound
Sarah Schachner's score gives the trailer an immediately distinctive sonic identity that suits the film's tonal control and historical register with real precision. The musical choices convey the film's visual intelligence with a sureness that makes the trailer feel unlike anything the franchise had previously produced. The score draws on indigenous musical traditions alongside its orchestral elements, which is an honest reflection of the film's creative priorities and a signal that Trachtenberg has thought carefully about the world he is building.
Most Memorable Moment
The first sight of the Predator in the historical setting, placed with enough visual specificity and tonal weight to convey the film's most important creative decision, is the trailer's most striking image: a demonstration of the film's willingness to place the franchise's central creature in an entirely new historical context and a preview of one of the more visually inventive sequences in the series' history. The Predator in 1719. The implications land immediately, and the trailer lets them.
Trailer Verdict
The franchise's most visually striking trailer since the original, for its most impressive film since 1987. Prey is one of the more remarkable genre revivals in recent cinema, and this trailer captures its visual intelligence and tonal control with a restraint and focus that makes it one of the more effective pieces of franchise marketing the series has produced. Trachtenberg took the franchise back to its roots by taking it somewhere new. The trailer makes that paradox feel like a promise.