The Feral Predator's skull mask is one of Prey's most radical franchise departures, but one origins theory suggests it's not just an artistic choice.

Of all the Predator’s new design elements in Prey, none is more radical (or divisive) than the skull mask, but according to one Reddit theory, its origin lies deeper than mere bold aesthetics. Prey is something of a reset of the Predator franchise. Set in 1719, it’s a return to the lean, elemental storytelling of the 1987 original, trading the jungles of Vietnam for the Northern Great Plains of North America and the United States military for the Comanche. When young protagonist Naru is captured by French Canadian fur trappers and used to bait the Predator, she must use her wits, knowledge of the forest, and the primitive weapons of her time to survive.

To make the Predator a visual match for Prey’s wilderness shooting locations and a fair match for its Comanche adversaries, the team behind Prey gave the alien a dramatic makeover and a more primitive set of weapons. Dubbed the Feral Predator, their creation is smaller, with scragglier dreads and a thinner face, than past iterations, and it packs significantly less heat. Gone is the famous Plasmacaster, downgraded to a laser-guided arrow launcher, while the Gauntlet Nuke has been replaced with Smart Disk Bombs. For defense, the Feral Predator is armed with a retractable shield and a bony face mask, both of which can deflect blades, arrows, and bullets. In terms of revamping the alien’s appearance, the latter armament goes the furthest, trading the sleek futurism of the Predator’s iconic metal Bio-Mask for something ancient, even pagan, like a nightmare vision from Man’s collective unconscious. Of course, the Feral Predator’s mask is anything but human in origin, but despite Prey’s ambiguity on the matter, one Redditor may have figured out where it came from.

Related: What Type of Predator is the One in Prey?

According to a theory by Reddit user, u/MjrTms, the origins of the Feral Predator’s skull mask in Prey can be traced to a canonical alien species known as the River Ghost, introduced in 2010s Robert Rodriguez-helmed reboot, Predators. River Ghosts are humanoid in appearance, with insect-like exoskeletons and bony, wing-like protuberances on their backs. Like the human characters in Predators, they were dropped on the Game Preserve Planet to be hunted, having been selected for their speed, ghost-like stealth, and deadly talons. This would explain how the Feral Predator came to possess one of their skulls, whether during a hunt on the Game Preserve Planet or an expedition to the River Ghost’s home world. Meanwhile, the River Ghost’s physiology - inspired by rejected designs for the original Predator - would explain why the Feral Predator chose to use its skull as a mask, the skull’s exoskeletal structure making it uniquely well-suited for wear outside the head. Perhaps the strongest evidence for u/MjrTms theory, however, is simply the undeniable resemblance between the Feral Predator’s mask and the River Ghost’s head.

Like the River Ghost’s head, the Feral Predator’s skull mask in Prey has a broad crown and forehead tapering to a long, almost equine, upper jaw. The crown and forehead are segmented into plates, whose outlines seem to correspond to various ridges on the River Ghost’s head. Of course, there are differences, but what can’t be attributed to artistic license can be attributed to the Feral Predator’s modifications.

One modification is the addition of the laser targeting system. Like every other bio-mask in the Predator franchise, the Feral Predator’s skull mask houses a laser sight capable of guiding projectiles (arrows in this case) directly towards whatever the iconic red triangle touches. Other features include alternate vision modes, a tracking system, and a bulletproof surface, although the latter might be a feature of the River Ghost’s anatomy and not a modification by the Feral Predator.

While the Feral Predator’s skull mask hasn’t won over everyone, it’s hard to deny it’s a more frightening look than the traditional Bio-Mask, and a better fit visually for the Prey movie setting. If, however, u/MjrTms's theory holds true, and it’s a River Ghost skull, it would add a whole new level of depth to the movie and even more justification for the mask's existence. The River Ghost was Robert Rodriguez’s way of paying tribute to the abandoned Predator design from the original film, but while it featured heavily in early drafts of the Predators screenplay, its role was reduced to just a few pages in the final draft. With Prey, director Daniel Trachtenberg may not only have found a clever way to tie his movie to Rodriguez’s reboot, Predators, but to finally give both the abandoned Predator design and the River Ghost their due.

William is a movies/tv features writer for Screen Rant. He also runs a blog, streamconsciousreviews.com, where he reviews contemporary and classic films from a wide range of genres. William lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife, two dogs, and two cats. When he's not writing about movies and tv, he can usually be found writing short stories or songs.