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Prey's Biggest Predator Easter Egg Is Even Cooler Than You Realize [UPDATED]

The director of the new Predator prequel explained where the prop came from, and you won't believe it.

Naru jumping from a tree in Prey.
Naru has some interesting weapons in Prey.
Image: Fox

Fans of the Predator franchise surely found lots of little winks and nods to the previous films in Hulu’s new prequel, Prey. A line of dialogue here. A piece of set dressing there. Then... that one big reveal at the end you were certainly not expecting. As cool as the one specific thing was, it’s actually even better than you realize. Prey director Dan Trachtenberg explains.

Image for article titled Prey's Biggest Predator Easter Egg Is Even Cooler Than You Realize [UPDATED]
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I’m referring, of course, to Raphael Adolini’s gun, which Naru takes possession of and uses against the Predator in the film. Fans should recognize it as the same gun that a Predator gives Danny Glover’s character, Detective Mike Harrigan, at the end of Predator 2. The only problem was that production couldn’t get it just right.

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“The gun that shows up in the movie, the Predator 2 weapon, is not from the archives [or] not from the vaults,” Prey director Dan Trachtenberg told io9. “Our prop master sought it out. We did not have it. The only way he could find it was he was watching a YouTube fan replica maker, and he saw it on his shelf behind him and he reached out to him and we got that gun. So that was provided by a fan of the franchise.”

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the raphael adolini gun from predator 2
The gun first seen in Predator 2 is back in Prey.
Image: Fox

Yes, a Predator fan who had painstakingly recreated the prop from Predator 2 was asked by the Prey team to borrow it for production. A prop designed to link into Predator’s history has finally done just that and a fan’s dream was realized. How cool is that?

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What’s slightly less cool, though, are the implications of what it means for Naru. The gun is still in the tribe at the end of Prey and the credits certainly suggest the Predators come back. Is Naru’s tribe who the Predator 2 predator got the gun from? Does that spell doom for our hero and her people? And either way, what does any of this mean for the previously accepted canon from the comics of the predator getting the gun from Adolini himself?

Maybe we’ll find out those answers one day, maybe not, but either way, that’s a level of detail and care few franchise films go the extra mile for.

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Prey is now streaming on Hulu.

Correction: Our original version of the story said that the prop used in the film was the exact prop used in Predator 2. That was inaccurate. We misinterpreted the director’s quote and apologize for the error. The story above now is accurate.

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