Summary

• Despite being critically panned, the financial success of the first two Alien Vs Predator movies left room for a potential third installment.
• The Strause Brothers had plans for Alien Vs Predator 3 to take place in space, tying the canon of Alien and Predator together.
• Conflicting visions for the franchise between the Strause Brothers and Ridley Scott's prequels paused plans for Alien Vs Predator 3, but a chance still exists.

Although the first two Alien Vs Predator movies were critically reviled, Alien Vs Predator 3 could still have happened thanks to their financial success. 2004’s Alien Vs Predator was one of the greatest disappointments in sci-fi horror cinema. Director Paul W.S. Anderson’s showdown between the two Goliaths of the genre was inexplicably rated PG-13, resulting in a bloodless, sanitized face-off that failed to satisfy fans of either franchise. 2007’s Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem seemed set to fix this issue, massively ramping up the gore by unleashing both Xenomorphs and Predators on an unsuspecting small American town.

However, one of the worst Alien movies and killed interest in a sequel. While this reaction seems fair, there were a few interesting ideas for Alien Vs Predator 3 to explore that went unused.

Alien Vs Predator 3 Should Have Happened (Despite The First Two Movies)

The Strause Brothers Wanted AVP3 To Happen In Space

While Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem was hated by critics, the sequel fared relatively well at the box office. Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem earned $130 million on a budget of $40 million, so it is no surprise that its directors, the Brothers Strause, were planning a third installment. According to a 2010 Gizmodo interview promoting their movie Skyline, the directors planned for Alien Vs Predator 3 to take place in space. The sequel’s story would have led directly into Ridley Scott’s original Alien, revealing the significance of the Predator technology that Ms. Yutani received at the end of Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem.

As many viewers predicted, this technology allowed Weyland-Yutani to reverse engineer space travelers by taking apart the Predator’s weaponry. Since both FX’s Alien TV show Alien: Earth and Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels offered other, contradictory backstories for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, this discord may explain why Alien Vs Predator 3 never entered production. The Strause Brothers had a different vision for the franchise that would have tied the canon of Alien and Predator together irrevocably, whereas Scott’s prequels took the world of Alien further from the Predator movies by replacing Alien Vs Predator’s Charles Weyland with Prometheus’s Peter Weyland.

Why Plans For AVP3 Were Paused

Alien Vs. Predator 3 Could Still Happen (Thanks To Alien's Future)

The plans for Alien Vs Predator 3 were paused since the Strause Brothers’ vision for the series contradicted Scott’s plan. However, since the Alien reboot Alien: Romulus is set to retcon Scott’s prequels and Alien: Earth will reinforce this, there is still a chance for the sequel to happen. If Alien: Romulus and Alien: Earth were to reinstate the first two Alien Vs Predator movies as part of the franchise’s canon, the subsequent third movie could enter production. However, it is hard to see Alien Vs Predator 3 winning over viewers after the earlier Alien Vs Predator movies.