Watch: Steven Seagal Almost Starred in Predator 2

If there is one lunatic strangoid that I’m a huge fan of to this day, it’s Steven Seagal. My childhood was made out of Seagal movies since my dad was such a huge fan of the guy, and his brutal style of martial arts. That’s why it’s really exciting to find out that Seagal almost played Lt. Mike Harrigan in Stephen Hopkins wild-action film, Predator 2.

Predator 2 would have been a vastly different film with Seagal in the lead role. He was a big action star at the time and people that worked with him all said that he liked to bully people and call the shots on set. Most interestingly is that in a meeting that director Hopkins took with Seagal, the action star seemed desperate and really excited for the role.

He was eventually passed up for for Danny Glover who did a fantastic job in the part. Another interesting bit here is that originally, Schwarzenegger was going to pair up with Glover and take on the Predator together. I mean, that would have been the best possible scenario but still, I’m a big fan of Predator 2, so I’m glad things worked out the way they did.

Seagal

Thanks to our friends over at Arrow in the Head for pointing this one out. In an interview with Howard Gorman of Scream Magazine, Stephen Hopkins got very candid about the production of Predator 2 to celebrate its upcoming 30th anniversary.

“Seagal was on board and I had to go have a meeting with him at his house – which was one of the craziest afternoons I’ve had, sort of to talk to him out of doing it. It was bizarre, he’s very unusual and slightly twisted kind of guy…” Hopkins told Gorman.

Hopkins went onto reveal, “He was desperate to do it. I went up to his house, he crusehd my hand he took me into a room where all the walls were covered with guns. He told me he wanted to play a CIA psychiatrist who is also a martial arts expert who carried a gun. He became really keen to do it, and he threw me his arm around me on the way out and said, ‘ I want you to come to my ranch in Santa Barbara because I’ve got a grenade launcher range there and we can launch grenades together.”

He also reveals that the Los Angeles Lakers played the actual Predator hunting party that arrives at the end of the film to reward Harrigan with his trophy. Perhaps the craziest bit is that the film crew actually hired the real life Crips gang to act as security on set.

The whole thing is pretty insane and definitely worth the 15 minute listen. Hopkins is so revealing during all this that we actually fell in love with the dude while watching.

Do you think Seagal would have been a good fit for Predator 2? Let us know in the comments section.

’10 Cloverfield Lane’s’ director is taking on the fifth Predator film. Read more here.