Predator: Badlands to Introduce Predator Culture and Customs

Live-action Predator films are a rare enough occurrence that you’d be forgiven for assuming they’d keep to the formula: the deadly alien as the cool villain and point-of-view humans caught in a struggle for survival. But the first teaser for the upcoming Predator: Badlands, released today, shows 20th Century Studios is going in a different direction with the franchise.

Predator: Badlands centers on Dek, a young Predator exiled from his community. Played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, the character is the central hero of the story, partnering with a Weyland-Yutani android named Thia (played by Elle Fanning) to take on “the ultimate adversary”: a monster that can’t be killed. The trailer also gives a glimpse of the “unkillable” monster, a massive creature whose scale dwarfs even the larger Predators.

The world of Predator: Badlands

Badlands is part of the shared Predator/Alien universe, but the film’s worldbuilding points to it being an important standalone story that further expands on Predator lore. Word has been spreading that at least part of the film is set on the Predator home world, something we haven’t seen on screen in a Predator film up to this point. The teaser trailer gives quick flashes of otherworldly landscapes and bustling communities of Predator beings, as well as multiple Predators either in a tense standoff or heated battle.

Director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg has shown interest in exploring more of Predator lore and culture, something his last film, Prey, stripped back considerably. Prey pared the story to a survivalist cat-and-mouse in the 18th-century American Great Plains, and the focus of Badlands is to add more context to the Predator’s traditions, language, and societal structures. If the first trailer is any indication, there is more to learn about the way of the Yautja and their code.

Films like Prey and Predator, and the Predator media in general, often present a tech-heavy yet primal version of violence and combat, so fans of that aspect can also expect it in force here. Badlands is very much a high-stakes monster match, but one that also looks to give more context to a creature of the hunt.

As for Thia, Fanning’s android character, the trailer shows her speaking in the eerily specific movements that have become a sort of Elle Fanning meme, as well as a clinical calmness to her dialogue delivery and word choice. However, Fanning’s scenes also give a glimpse of humanity peeking through Thia, hinting at her interests and a potential for empathy.

Predator and androids haven’t crossed over this closely before, and several visual and linguistic Easter eggs in the trailer point to Weyland-Yutani. For fans of Alien media with that particular corporation, there should be no shortage of connections to dig into.

An actor and director returning.

If there’s one thing that makes this new Predator film feel especially promising, it’s that the director is coming back for more. Trachtenberg is a special talen, and was one of the key reasons Prey ended up being a certified hit. The 2022 film was a critical darling and, though coming out on Hulu and therefore a slightly different comparison to a traditional theatrical release, it has found a sizable audience. Prey is also a film whose reputation has only gotten better, with praise for both how it upended expectations of the Predator formula and how it presented a culturally specific retelling of the human versus alien story.

Trachtenberg will continue his Predator media streak in 2024, with a new animated anthology series, Predator: Killer of Killers, premiering on Hulu on June 6. The series is based on Trachtenberg’s Predator: Killer of Killers series of comic books, and the show will similarly center around different Predator hunts through multiple timelines and settings.

Our first look at Predator: Badlands

While the first trailer does not spoil any major plot points, there is plenty to take in, including clips of Predators in ceremonial armor going at each other, Dek on foot in a different biome than where we first saw him, Thia with futuristic guns, and quick glimpses of “the unkillable”. The first glance at the alien worlds Badlands is set on is lush and impressively realized, and it’s looking like the scale of the film is just as big as its characters and beasts.

The first teaser also does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of shaking up fans’ expectations. Badlands won’t be following the traditional Predator formula with a major change in perspective. The fact that this is a Predator who has been ostracized by his people also opens up opportunities for different character development and moral conflict that have never really been present in these films.

If Dek’s story is about proving his honor or worth to his fellow Predators, then audiences may be invested in the survival of a character they would have otherwise vilified.