Alien vs. Predator Series Is Being Kept In The Vault By Disney
Joshua Izzo says 10 episodes of a completed Alien vs Predator anime series are complete, but he does not know why it has not been released.
As part of the 2023 Alien Day celebrations, Joshua Izzo, the person credited with shepherding the Alien and Predator expanded universe in the 2010s, revealed details about a completed Alien vs Predator animated series stored in a vault at Disney. Speaking to the Perfect Organism Podcast, he shared several details about the project.
“There is, sitting at Disney now, at 20th Studios, 10 episodes of a fully completed Alien vs Predator anime series that I produced,” Izzo said. “It’s done. It’s in the can. It’s mixed; it’s finished. It was produced and story cracked by Eric Calderon and Dave Baker, two unbelievably crazy talented guys,” he continued.
Izzo also explained that Dave Bixler, who was head of Home Entertainment in 2016, championed the Alien vs Predator project for him. He also talked about Sam Register, who was overseeing all of WB animation and green-lit direct DVD adaptations of the DC Comics programs. Impressed with the business model, Izzo discussed his Alien vs Predator idea with the head of consumer products, Jeffrey Godsick.
“I said, ‘Hey listen, I want to pitch this idea of a direct to-DVD Alien and/or Alien/Predator and/or Predator animation that we, the consumer products division, can sell against,” Izzo explained. He said he wanted to be the “master of his own destiny” instead of waiting for a theatrical movie. At the time, 2017’s Alien: Covenant was in the early stages of development, with no mention of 2018’s The Predator.
“It was still open season for our sci-fi brands, so [Godsick] was like, ‘Yeah, it’s a great idea, go.’” So Izzo pitched the idea to the folks at Home Entertainment. He said that creating a series would be easy since the company owned nearly 30 years of Alien, Predator, and Alien vs Predator comic book content. He also presented them with a storyboard and a complete idea for an animated series.
After some discussions, a director was brought in, and Izzo and his team started working on a final story that was true to the source material. The story was set in the future, long after Alien vs Predator and Alien 4. “We said, ‘This won’t compete with anything happening in our core timeline.’ So if you ever want to do another movie or tell any of the stories on Earth, we’re all square.’”
An agreement was reached, and the Alien vs Predator series was given a 10-episode order. According to Izzo, it was supposed to be released as three direct-to-DVD or streaming movies in the United States. The series was set to debut on television in Japan.
According to Alien vs. Predator Galaxy, the director Izzon mentioned is rumored to be Shinji Aramaki. Given his previous work, the Aliens vs. Predator series would have been CG animation rather than traditional Japanese anime. While Izzo did not reveal the plot, he shared some information about the characters.
One of the Predators is a cyborg with a fully cybernetic arm and a cybernetic mandible. Another is called Bone because all his weapons are made from giant tusks. But once Alien: Covenant and The Predator were released, Izzo’s Alien vs Predator series got lost in the noise. He has no idea why Disney chose to shelve the project. He suggested that Disney may have decided to keep Alien and Predator as separate entities.
