Is Alien Vs. Predator 3: Retribution Real or Fake? New Movie Speculation Explained

Speculation is running rampant online regarding an upcoming Alien Vs. Predator 3 movie being released in theaters.

Alien Vs. Predator 3 Rumors Explained

YouTuber FoxStar Media shared a 2-minute-25-second-long trailer for a film titled Alien Vs. Predator: Retribution, which has fans believing Alien Vs. Predator 3 is set to be released soon.

The trailer opens with a monologue asking if one of the aliens from the past movies was dead after a predator was let loose before moving to research tents in an icy tundra.

A character seemingly played by Will Smith then comes into frame wearing a winter jacket before Randall Park is seen driving a tank-like vehicle onto the ice.

The ice breaks as the tank falls to the bottom, and when Park gets out, he is caught and dragged back into the cave by what appears to be an alien that broke out of its frozen prison.

Unfortunately, this trailer can fairly easily be debunked as fake.

Most of the footage used in this trailer is taken directly from Warner Bros.’ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which became available for purchase in digital marketplaces on January 23.

But will an Alien Vs. Predator 3 ever happen? The Brothers Strause, who directed 2007’s Alien Vs. Predator – Requiem (the sequel to 2004’s Alien Vs. Predator), told MovieWeb that year how they would want to move the series back into space rather than having the story take place on Earth.

More recently, Predator movie producer John Davis spoke with Variety in 2022 about the idea of bringing “an origin origin story” to the table, even teasing a “modern-day version” of the adventure with the right opportunity:

“Well, maybe there’s an origin origin story. Right? Maybe there’s another ‘Alien vs. Predator’ story in a different situation. And maybe there’s a new modern-day version. And maybe there’s something somewhere in between. I think this character can show up throughout history.”

In early 2023 (via AVP Galaxy), Liam O’Donnell, who worked as a visual effects creative consultant on Requiem, shared a rough treatment he wrote for a potential Alien Vs. Predator 3.

This would have taken the story 20 years into the future in the year 2024, moving the plot to the African wildlands as it was described as a “unified hegemonic Federation dominated by the now merged Weyland Yutani Corporation.”

After retrieving the Predator Plasma Pistol at the end of Aliens vs. Predator -Requiem and the insight from looking into the alien technology, Weyland-Yutani would move to develop interstellar engines with sights now set on a colonizing initiative.

This would have been fueled by a rare mineral only found in South Africa, and the film would have focused on a small group of human characters – a UN peacekeeper, a local tribe leader from a nearby South African town and his son, and the leader of a rebel group.

The Chances of Alien Vs. Predator 3 Being Made

While fans are looking deeply into the speculation that Alien Vs. Predator 3 will become a reality, the sequel does not appear to be in the cards for the foreseeable future.

However, that does not mean that the Alien and Predator franchises are dead as a whole, as both series have come back into the spotlight in recent years.

The last Alien movie came in 2017 with Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant featuring Michael Fassbender and Katherine Waterston.

Meanwhile, the Predator series returned to the spotlight with Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey premiering on Hulu in 2022, and discussions are already in place about a potential Prey 2.

Additionally, Deadline revealed in November 2023 that Timothy Olyphant is set to lead an upcoming Alien series on FX alongside Noah Hawley, which will be set decades before Sigourney Weaver’s first movie in the series.