The Predator is among the most well-known and scary figures in the realm of science fiction, and its on-screen creation was a collaborative effort. Kevin Peter Hall, standing seven feet tall, donned the Predator suit, giving the alien its formidable on-screen presence. However, a renowned ’80s voice actor was the genius behind the Predator’s eerie sounds.

Though you might not recognize Peter Cullen’s face, his voice is undoubtedly familiar. Cullen is an accomplished voice actor associated with over 200 roles, but he is most adored as the voice of Optimus Prime, the hero of “Transformers.” Since the initial ’80s cartoon, Cullen has consistently voiced this character while also bringing to life an array of superheroes, villains, dinosaurs, and even members of the Addams family.

The “Predator” team noticed Cullen due to his monster sounds for 1976’s “King Kong.” Despite this, he was wary of taking another monster role due to previous experiences. “It caused me to cough up blood, and so I chose to never do monster type sounds again,” Cullen revealed to The Digital Fix in 2006. Although hesitant, Cullen opted to seize the opportunity. Arriving with no preset ideas, he spontaneously crafted one of the most legendary monster sounds ever, paving the way for the “Predator” saga.

Cullen was determined to avoid conventional monster noises in “Predator,” but he faced another constraint when producers desired he remain unaware of the Predator’s appearance. Insistent on needing visual insight to devise an appropriate sound, Cullen eventually viewed a scene of the Predator unmasking.

At a 2018 TFcon panel, Cullen shared, “When [the Predator] did that, I saw this ugly, ugly face, and these tentacles going like this. It reminded me of an upside-down horseshoe crab dying in the sun on a beach when I was a kid. It was nasty.” This revolting visual provided the precise inspiration Cullen sought. Picturing the decaying horseshoe crab led him to conceive a crackling and clicking sound that matched the Predator perfectly.

In the studio, Cullen’s sound was subtle enough that he had to move very close to a boom mic for recording. Director John McTiernan initially didn’t hear it well, which left him unimpressed at first. However, once the playback revealed the eerie clicking sound that would captivate sci-fi fans, McTiernan recognized that Cullen had delivered something exceptional.

Before Kevin Peter Hall and Peter Cullen combined forces to bring the Predator to life, someone else took a crack at the role. Fading action star Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator, and he actually suited up and filmed some scenes as the creature itself. Unfortunately, Van Damme’s run as the Predator was short-lived and semi-disastrous, but without it we might not have the Predator that exists today.

Van Damme reportedly had his own ideas about how to portray the Predator, and he argued for more fight choreography and kickboxing-styled moves for the creature. He and the filmmakers argued about their competing visions, but the biggest problem with “Predator” for Van Damme was the costume. “The actor had to wear a felt suit that covered his whole body,” Bill Duke told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, “and with 90 and 100 degree temperatures, [Jean-Claude] had passed out twice from dehydration.” Van Damme, and that fur suit, were both replaced, and we ended up with the version of the Predator that still loves to hunt Earthly prey today.