“I didn’t like it, so I won’t”: Why didn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger return to this famous SF saga?

The label “cult” is often overused, with almost every sauce. But here, on an ’80s action movie icon like Predator, he deserves to be employed more than ever.

The first collaboration between Arnold Schwarzenegger and director John McTiernan, this absolutely perfect blend of fantasy/action/horror, shot in the heart of the Mexican jungle, introduces a creature that has become a pop culture icon.

With its impressive special effects of the time, orgies of shootings, a squad of 100% macho guaranteed tough guys, whose every line the fans know like the back of their hands (“If he can shed blood…we can kill him”, “toughen it up for me”, “I don’t have time to bleed”…), Predator is a monument to a bad movie like no other.

Already a distant era that smelled good Acting persons Populating the shelves of video stores. But if many of his peers fell on the field of honor, John McTiernan’s prey absolutely did not show the weight of the years.

Unfortunately, it cannot be said that the decline of the franchise was with the following operations, the crossover Alien Vs Predator, 2010’s Predators or the Predator released eight years later and directed by Shane Black, who played the role of Hawkins in 1987. If a solid predator raised the bar significantly, the film landed directly on the Disney+ platform.

“I didn’t like it, so I won’t do it”

Arnold Schwarzenegger has repeatedly expressed interest in reprising the role of the mercenary Dutchman and fighting the predator. It was first mentioned in Predator 2. But in the end nothing was done, mainly because Schwarzenegger was unhappy with the scope of his role…

In this case, what Shane Black suggested in Predator: Arnie should have been there. It is very little for the actor, as he explained in an interview Yahoo In April 2017:

“They asked me , I read the script and I didn’t like what the proposal was. That’s why I won’t make a film. Unless they rewrite the script or make her a more important role. As it stands, it is not. I will not make this film.”

The day after this interview was published, Shane Black wanted to react (ex-Twitter), suggests he was heading in the actor’s direction: “I talked to him, I think, because he felt like he didn’t have enough things to do. Not enough film presence.”

Too little, too late for our beloved Arnie, now 76 years old.