Predator: Badlands Brings Back Director of Prey for New Story

Live-action Predator movies are a rare breed, and not often do we see a film that has turned the franchise’s titular alien hunter into the main hero of its story. However, that is exactly what today’s 20th Century Studios chose to do, as the first teaser for the upcoming Predator: Badlands dropped.

The film will follow a Predator youngster, known as Dek and played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who has been exiled from his people and will need to band together with a very unlikely ally in order to survive. This ally will come in the form of the Weyland-Yutani android named Thia, played by Elle Fanning, as Dek and his newfound friend team up to face what the teaser trailer names “the ultimate enemy” – a being “that can’t be killed”.

Predator: Badlands was confirmed in early 2023, having the mission to act as the central launchpad for an expanded shared universe between the Predator and Alien franchises. While the Badlands movie will be able to exist and be enjoyed on its own means, the first official info about the production’s story revealed that at least part of it will take place on the Predator home planet. The teaser trailer also brought a taste of it, though only for a split second, as Dek seems to come across various areas of uneven, otherworldly terrains, as well as glimpses of Predators moving through a crowded settlement.

Dek and his fellow Predators will also be at the center of the film’s inner-Predator conflicts, as the teaser gives audiences a few sights of what appears to be Predators either preparing to fight each other or locked in heated combat sequences. This also means that the franchise is looking at taking a closer look at their mythology, specifically that of the Predator species, with their history, language, and customs potentially all set to be explored in the movie. If Prey is any indication, as Prey was the 2022 installment in the franchise that worked to expand upon some of the Predator race’s history, Badlands should allow fans to learn more about the Yautja culture, language, and core mythos.

It’s also worth pointing out the fact that this is the first time that a Predator movie features an android as one of its main characters. In the case of Thia, the Weyland-Yutani also becomes an interesting element, as any intersection between the Predator and Alien universes can potentially be an amusing Easter egg hunt for fans of both franchises.

Dan Trachtenberg Is Back at the Helm

Speaking of the recent Prey, the man behind its direction was also at the director’s chair for Predator: Badlands, as Dan Trachtenberg was set to return to the Predator universe, this time as a filmmaker, following his work on the film that rebooted and revitalized the franchise for a new generation. In addition to being met with critical acclaim and even though it was released on Hulu, Prey still received enough attention and viewer interest to count as a commercial success, the positive word of mouth around it helping the project grow into what is now considered to be an essential entry in the Predator series.

In addition to Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg was also reportedly hard at work on Predator: Killer of Killers, a new Hulu animated anthology series that will explore Predator hunts set across a multitude of different settings and timelines, which is set to premiere on June 6.

The biggest thing that has been noted about the Predator: Badlands teaser trailer so far is the fact that while it shows Predators, androids and loads of tension, the brief glimpses of Dek’s surroundings and the “enemy that cannot be killed” as well as the Predators either preparing to fight each other or locked in heated combat sequences are things that could theoretically be seen as spoilers.

The teaser trailer will also have to serve the purpose of teasing a reveal, so any shots that fans haven’t seen before but which can be assumed to be important or serve as a focal point of the film’s mythos (such as alien worlds, other Predators, the new creature etc.) will often be brought to light at some point during the preview.

As such, the main things that the first Predator: Badlands teaser trailer has shown are Dek himself, Thia with her lethal arsenal, and other Predators, with all of them being shown at a distance or caught in fast-moving scenes. There has also been no mention of a potentially strong villain in the shape of human characters for the film, meaning that, as of now, there are only two choices of characters that could be seen as major antagonists in the story.

We know from official descriptions of the film that both Dek and Thia are protagonists of the movie, with the latter being human-created while the former is an actual Predator. As such, there are a lot of opportunities for conflict either within the Predator universe, between Thia and Dek themselves, or with the enemy that is “too powerful to be killed”.

Release Date, Next Trailer, nd What’s to Come

As it currently stands, Predator: Badlands has been confirmed to be premiering in theaters on November 7, making it one of the last major Sci-Fi action films to be released this year. Between now and then, more trailers for the film should drop, potentially giving audiences a closer look at what is happening in this new take on the Predator myth, os well as dropping at least some info about what exactly the enemy that “cannot be killed” will look like.