By Dropping “Predator,” Prey Shows How to Trust Your Audience

At the start of this decade, the Predator franchise — which began in 1987 with the original Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring blockbuster — had run out of steam. A gimmicky crossover with the Alien universe had diminishing returns, 2010’s Predators received mediocre reviews, and 2018’s The Predator was a critical and commercial flop.

After so many failed reboots, how could the brand go forward? By dropping its own name!

The prequel Prey, which dropped in August, quickly became the most-watched premiere in Hulu history. Its 93% Rotten Tomatoes score didn’t hurt, but the film’s title — a subtle stroke of marketing genius, almost as invisible as the predator itself — was largely responsible for its early buzz. Prey is the first of seven franchise films to leave the word “Predator” out of its title entirely. And this showed how deeply the producers trusted their audience.

In fact, Prey is about trust. Naru (Amber Midthunder) is in a constant struggle to win the trust of her brother, mother, and community — and she must trust herself to execute her incredibly dangerous plan to defeat the predator.

“I think this one proves that you can still have success without calling something Part Two, Begins or what have you,” director Dan Trachtenberg told the Hollywood Reporter.

One takeaway here is that sometimes a brand is so successful that it’s bigger than a name-drop — remember when Starbucks dropped the lettering from its logo in 2011? But a lesson more applicable to brands of all sizes is: trust your own customers. Rather than bombarding them with info, start a conversation and let them connect the dots.