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Not to beat a dead xenomorph (those things just won't die anyway), but at this point, it's only a question of when we're going to see a Predator and an Alien go head-to-head in film once again. No, it wasn't quite in Predator: Killer of Killers, and no, it won't be on FX's Alien: Earth, so naturally fans have been wondering if we'll get a chestburster scene in the upcoming Predator: Badlands. However, those fans might have to tap the brakes on their expectations a little bit, as the most recent update from Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg seems to throw water on there being an actual xenomorph in the upcoming film.

The Prey director recently sat down for an on-camera interview with MSN, published in an article August 8. During the course of the discussion, Trachtenberg's interviewer asked about the possibility of Badlands opening the door to a new collision of the two most popular sci-fi horror icons on screen. 

"This is definitely a toe dip into potentially things colliding more aggressively," Predator's new creative lead answered, "But, I know for me, I've enjoyed, if ever there to be the universe being connected or whatever, that it's not like we're grabbing our action figures and we're just smushing them together, you know? That it can be handled a little bit more elegantly."

As much as it is disappointing to hear that the union of these two monsters on screen seems to be further away than we might've hoped, I'd argue there's a massive silver lining to this. That is, that the creative minds behind these two franchises are working on weaving them together from a storytelling standpoint, and not a corporate mandate to sell tickets. An "elegant" handling of the future Alien vs. Predator event should be a hopeful prospect for fans of both franchises.

Because god knows we've already experienced... not that.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu now, with new episodes every Tuesday night. Predator: Badlands comes to theaters November 7.

What's that clicking noise? The Predator franchise is back in a BIG way and we're is here to guide you though it. Start off by checking out Popverse's Predator watch order.