Surreal could describe the last few years for Midthunder, who’s been working as an actor since she was a kid. Her breakout moment arguably came through 2022’s Prey, where she portrayed an early 1700s Comanche warrior under threat from colonizers and, of course, aliens. Prey wasn’t just critically acclaimed and beloved by fans; it was also the first film in the longstanding Predator franchise to feature a predominantly Indigenous cast, something that Midthunder takes a lot of pride in as an enrolled member of the Assiniboine tribe at the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “There was obviously the risk that [Prey] could not be good or that it could go wrong, and having representation that you’re not proud of is honestly so devastating. But I don’t think I could have been in safer hands than with Dan Trachtenberg as our director. He is the picture of an ally. To have that movie have the impact that it did both in and out of the Indigenous community, that meant the world to me.”