This was the summer that theater audiences really got to know the famous 20th century logo, arcing headlights and all. The Disney-owned division was everywhere, thanks to hits Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulusnot to mention The first omen. Also Deadpool & Wolverinewhich grossed $1.3 billion, featured the logo before and in the movie, which was in part a love letter to the Fox-era Marvel movies.

Guiding 20th is the steady hand of Steve Asbell, the longtime Fox executive who became chairman of the division in 2020, just as the pandemic hit. He navigated the transition movies and then the pandemic movies, and then the switch to streaming and back to theater again.

But as much as this summer’s movies were about long-ago franchises, the studio has an eye very much on the future. It’s partnering with emerging filmmakers on streaming features that it could turn to theaters if an opportunity presents itself. And that’s stepping on the gas on some original theatrical films.

“All of this success gives us the equity and drive to kind of take these pictures,” Asbell says, noting that the division begins production on a Bruce Springsteen movie starring Jeremy Allen White later this month and will begin shooting. Send help with Sam Raimi in January. Next year, a comedy from the James L. Brookes and Rami Malek spy thriller will be released The amateur. More projects will start during the summer.

Even the offices are lively these days, with a natural size Planet monkeys simian, decked out in cool hues, welcoming visitors and a handsome wood and glass box being built to house the division’s many historic Oscars.

With Foreign Asbell, who oversees nine production managers along with their support teams, wraps up his theatrical run in October and Springsteen is close to starting production, catching his breath, if only for a moment. But he sat down The Hollywood Reporter to discuss balancing streaming and theatrical, original and established IP, and spilled more than he should about two, yes we said two, Predator movies coming next year.

In many ways, this was the summer that 20th Century Studios came into its own within the Disney empire. So what does it mean to be 20th Century Studios in 2024?

I’ve been here almost five years now, and it’s actually been an amazing journey with Disney, because there’s no us and them, it’s just us. I mean, Alan (Bergman, Disney chairman) has been our champion since the beginning. He has supported our list from the very beginning, all through marketing, distribution, publicity. We are all very close now and we are all friends. It feels very integrated and it feels like just this summer we were able to contribute to the larger Disney model. And now we have David Greenbaum, who, fortunately for me, is a very old friend of mine. He’s a manager with impeccable taste and he’s brought a real energy, frankly, to both divisions. And what that means is that I think filmmakers, good franchise movies and original movies for both theater and streaming.

Where is the balance between original and franchise games?

Right now it looks like next year, half the record. Job one was to figure out these franchise movies first and figure out the right cadence Avatar, Monkeys, Foreign and Predator especially. Getting them right was the first part, which we’ve done now. And so that idea is to be able to say, “Okay, we know when Avatar movies are coming. We now know approx Predator. There will be one more Monkeys in ’27, let’s just say.” So knowing where we can plan these franchises, it helps us look and ask what kinds of original movies in terms of genre do we want to test the market with?

How do you decide which ones to stream and which ones not to?

The landscape has changed so that the theatrical is back. There is much more opportunity in theatrical movies, but since the consolidation of Disney+ and Hulu, there is a huge audience for these (streaming) movies. There’s still that thing with streaming movies where we can really take chances with it and they can kind of be what they need to be. They don’t necessarily reach that theatrical threshold of “how much is it? How many screens?”

Alien: Romulus was supposed to go straight to streaming, but that was changed right before recording. So what prompted that change?

It was started as a streaming film because we started developing when we were in covid and it wasn’t clear what our strategy would be theater or streaming. Back then, we had different types of budget categories for streaming, which we were always careful not to want to spend too much money on streaming movies. We didn’t really know yet how they would perform based on the metrics. And the truth is, we started it hoping that theater would return to some measure of normalcy. But we made that movie and, frankly, every other movie we’ve made for streaming, with the same care and curation that we do our theatrical movies.

What is the next step for Foreign?

We are working on a sequel now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede (Alvarez), but we will, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were the real highlights of the film. And so I always think about it like, “Wow, where do people want to see them go next?” We know there will be aliens. We know there will be great horror scenes. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.

Jon Landau, who produced Avatar films, sadly passed away this summer. Have the everyday going Avatar 3 changed at all?

It’s just hard personally, because Jon is someone I talked to every day and he was a mentor to me and a good friend and had an incredible impact on everyone. I mean, it’s a big loss. He was a great, good friend and a great kind of half-wit to Jim (Cameron), however he describes it. We just miss him every day. But that hasn’t changed. It hasn’t affected the release date or Jim’s timeline or anything like that. We were already on a course that has its own milestones and signposts.

Blitz round of 20th century titles! Free guy 2?

Not yet. (Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds) have to come up with an idea. And they are just busy.

Kingsman sequels or prequels.

There are no plans to do them anytime soon.

More mystery films from Agatha Christie.

More, yes. we have, And then there were none. We have that Witness for the prosecution. We do Miss Marple. There are a bunch of other titles we’re working on. We have a very close relationship with the estate.

A Master and Commander prequel?

I’m trying so hard. It’s the first film I worked on at Fox twenty years ago. We have a good script. It just needs the right director.

Some Die Hard plans?

No, not yet.

Here’s a big one. Coming next Predator film get theatrical release? (Editor’s note: this conversation took place before Disney dated Predator: Badlands for a theatrical release in 2025.)

Yes. And no.

You’re killing me here.

Yes, a Predator the movie will have a theater. I will tell you very simply. After Change was a success, Dan (Trachtenberg) came back and said he didn’t want to do it Exchange 2. And we say, “What do you want to do?” And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We actually did two of them. Two will be released next year. One I can’t talk about yet, but the other is live action Predator movie with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. It will hit theaters sometime next year.

You charm me. Let’s tackle this one at a time. A Predator the film is released in theaters?

It has the title Badlands and it’s a completely crazy idea. It’s a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everyone thinks it is. And I mean, it’s amazing. It’s so crazy. But we trust Dan.

Now you said it’s a second Predator Film.

There is a second one Predator film for which we have different plans. Dan has actually directed both.

So there is a secret Predator Film—

There is a secret Predator movie coming out before the theatrical one I can’t say anything about yet.

Good. May we see another eventually Alien vs. Predator?

Probably.

Not sure how I feel about that.

It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…maybe. But we haven’t gotten there. And we’re not just going to knock it out.

At a 30th anniversary screening of Speed a few weeks ago Sandra Bullock said Hollywood might not be brave enough for one Speed ​​3. Response?

Hollywood is brave enough. We are brave enough. We are sitting by the phone. (Laughs)

It’s one of the last films we haven’t remade. And to really be a reason to come back, it has to be a good idea and an idea that excites (Bullock and Keanu Reeves). Because that would be the reason to see it. It’s obviously a very important title for us, but it’s not something we would handle lightly or just try to push them into use. They must be part of the development of that idea.

A version of this story first appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To get the magazine, click here to subscribe.