Steven Seagal was almost the star of Predator 2 back in 1990. John McTiernan’s original movie came out in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the starring role. The film focused on a military group sent on a mission in Central American who are hunted down by a terrifying creature. In the ’80s, reviews for the film were largely negative; however, the box office numbers paved the way for a sequel just a few years later.
Predator 2 brought the Yautja (Predator) to Los Angeles, with a police officer trying to hunt it down as the creature wreaks havoc on the city. Much like its predecessor, early reviews for Predator 2 were negative, but it is still considered one of the better sequels in the franchise. Despite it being a sequel, Predator 2 didn’t bring back any of the cast members from the first film except for Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator. Predator 2 did have a few big stars, however, with Danny Glover, Gary Busey, and Bill Paxton leading the film. While Glover had found stardom in the ’80s from starring in Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 across Mel Gibson, his role as Lieutenant Mike Harrigan in Predator 2 almost went to Seagal.
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In an interview with Howard Gorman (via Bloody Disgusting) for Predator 2‘s 30th Anniversary, director Stephen Hopkins talked about almost casting Seagal in the sequel. Apparently, Seagal really wanted the role and invited Hopkins over to his house to talk about the movie. Hopkins explained that it was one of the strangest experiences of his life, with Seagal showing off his gun collection and offering to launch grenades with the director.
“I had to go and have a meeting at his house. Which was one of the craziest afternoons I’ve had. […] … it was a bizarre… he’s a very unusual, slightly twisted kind of guy. In the end, I couldn’t see myself doing it with him. He was desperate to do it. I went into his house and he took me into a room where all the walls were covered with guns. He told me he wanted to play a CIA-psychiatrist who was also a martial arts expert who carried a gun. He was clearly a little crazy at the time. And I was like this is different than the way we’re going so I guess we shouldn’t do it.
“He said, ‘You know, I want you to come to my house in Santa Barbara.’ He said, ‘I’ve got a grenade launching range there, we can launch grenades together’. I said, ‘Yeah… great, we’ll do that’… Sorry, I’m not a fan of his.”
Despite the films in the Predator franchise consistently getting mixed to negative reviews, 20th Century Fox continued to pump out new movies featuring the now-iconic alien. After 1990, the Predator wouldn’t return to the big screen until 2004 when the Yautja and Xenomorphs crossed over in Alien vs. Predator. Alien vs. Predator and its sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem both received mostly negative reviews from fans and critics, but the franchise was partly redeemed in 2010 thanks to Nimród Antal’s Predators with a cast featuring the likes of Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Danny Trejo. Despite 2018’s The Predator receiving scathing reviews, the franchise is again being rebooted under Disney’s direction. The upcoming film will be directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg and may take place in the past, focusing on a Native American tribe.
Danny Glover is often considered the best part of Predator 2, and the sequel may not have turned out as well if Seagal had led the film. Seagal had only appeared in two films, prior to Predator 2 hitting theaters, but Glover had already made a name for himself in Hollywood. Glover has since starred in dozens of movies and TV shows, but Predator 2 continues to be a fan-favorite within the horror community. There’s no telling for sure how Predator 2 would have performed if Seagal was the star, but it’s still not as hard to imagine as Jean-Claude Van Damme starring in the original Predator.
Source: Howard Gorman (via Bloody Disgusting)
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