The 7th installment in a 35 year-old horror franchise lands huge Emmys recognition after being deemed unworthy of theaters

It would be fair to say that ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger and his band of manly men burst onto the scene way back in 1987 that Predator has never exactly been a franchise you could justifiably call an awards season darling. And yet, last year’s prequel Prey has turned that notion on its head and then some.

There were a lot of longtime fans left dismayed that Disney were rebooting the tiring property in the first place, and that ambivalence turned into outright fury when it was revealed 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg’s period piece wouldn’t even be sniffing the inside of a theater in favor of an exclusive streaming release on Hulu.

However, it’s all worked out spectacularly for the acclaimed hybrid of horror and action thriller in the end, with Prey landing an impressive six nominations at the Primetime Emmmys in the Limited or Anthology Series or Movie categories.

In total, the blood-soaked rampage of revenge has been shortlisted for Outstanding Television Movie, Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Directing, Outstanding Sound Editing, Outstanding Picture Editing, and Outstanding Sound Composition, although Amber Midthunder was nowhere to be found after being edged out by some seriously hard-hitting competition in the Outstanding Lead Actress stakes.

All that aside, if you’d have told somebody a few years ago that Disney would be responsible for a Predator reboot that ended up landing Emmys recognition for its writing, directing, and quality of the film itself, then you’d have been laughed out of the building and straight into next week.