‘Prey’ producer explains the benefits of going straight to streaming

With blood in the water following Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent decision to shelve Batgirl, it may be unexpected to hear a filmmaker unreservedly praise the streaming model, but that’s just what Prey producer, Jhane Myers is doing. But her reasons may not be the ones you would expect.

Myers and director Dan Trachtenberg recently discussed the movie with Gamesradar’s Total Film. While it might be a shame that Predator fans won’t be able to watch the action of the movie on a movie screen, Myers said the greatest advantage to the streaming format is the way the audience is able to listen to the film, specifically, the ability to hear the dub in Comanche, the language of the people portrayed in the film.

“It’s a huge bonus because if you were going to see it in the cinema, you wouldn’t have the option of watching it in Comanche. It’s so important. This is the first time that a film has ever been entirely in the Comanche language, ever. It’s also the first time that a brand new film is coming out in the Native language. So for authenticity, for representation, it sets that bar really high. I always tell people, ‘Oh, you need to watch it in English and you need to watch it in Comanche just to see it.’ Just for Native people, that’s a huge thing. Huge.”

—  Jhane Myers

Myers is herself a citizen of the Comanche Nation, and was instrumental in maintaining the movie’s authenticity. Myers also noted in a separate interview that the film could easily serve as an instructing tool for the teaching of Comanche, which is a severely endangered world language, and hopes Prey will “encourage people to continue to learn that language and that it’s captured. So much Native American history, so much Comanche history is oral.”