First Look at Predator: Badlands — A Predator Story Like Never Before

It’s rare to see a new live-action Predator movie, let alone one that features the franchise’s trademark monster as the main character. But today, 20th Century Studios released the first teaser trailer for a new, highly anticipated Predator spinoff film called Predator: Badlands, and it’s immediately promising to be unlike any other Predator movie we’ve seen before.

The new movie stars Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, a young Predator who has been cast out by his species and who will lead the charge as the primary hero of the film. He’s joined by the android Thia (played by Elle Fanning) as they are forced to battle what the trailer describes as “the ultimate opponent”, a mysterious and unkillable creature that can’t be killed.” Very little of this “monster of the week” is shown in the trailer, but it does appear to be an immense creature that has never before been seen in the Alien or Predator universes.

Big Picture for the Predator Universe

Badlands will exist in the broader Alien/Predator shared universe but will have its self-contained plot, according to a 20th Century Studios representative. Sources claim that the movie will “expand the Predator universe,” with at least part of the action set on the Predator homeworld — a setting that has only been referenced in prior movies in the Alien/Predator shared universe. Alien Landscapes and hives of Predator activity are among the key scenes in the trailer, along with several Predators of their own (many of whom are seen wearing ceremonial armor and fighting against each other in slow motion).

Dan Trachtenberg, who was so well-liked with his work on the last Predators movie Prey (2022), is back to direct and co-write, and he has expressed an interest in unpacking Predator culture and how they live. While Prey, as we’ve already noted, was a stripped-back affair of a hunter vs hunted standoff on the 18th-century American Great Plains, Badlands promises to go into far more detail about the Predators’ rituals, language, traditions, and internal dynamics. Trachtenberg’s work on the first Predator: Guerrilla (2019) as well as Prey indicates that the audience will receive far more lore about the species’ daily life and society, and how that’s impacted by the threat of this larger, unstoppable force.

Fanning’s portrayal of Thia, the android from Weyland-Yutani, is also one to keep an eye on. We only get a taste of her in the trailer, where she delivers dialogue in the same monotone yet subtly unsettling fashion, while simultaneously twirling around a futuristic weapon like a robot. This is the first time in a Predator movie that the hunters are so closely paired with a human-created android, and there should be a wealth of connection material for Alien enthusiasts to discover in there with the Weyland-Yutani link.

Look Who’s Back

As mentioned above, it’s a major boon that Trachtenberg will be back at the helm to bring the Badlands. Prey received a critical and financial response that was beyond the studio’s wildest expectations and is now doing very well with strong word of mouth on Hulu, so to see the director return bodes extremely well for the film and the franchise in general. While Prey’s success no doubt played a major part in securing his return, it also shows that 20th Century Studios has faith in Trachtenberg’s talent and understanding of the universe.

For his part, Trachtenberg is also back on with another Predator project in the works, this time in the form of a Hulu-only animated anthology series called Predator: Killer of Killers, which is scheduled to debut on Hulu on June 6. The series will be set across a number of different timelines and depict a variety of Predator hunts in each of its episodes.

What Can We See in the Teaser?

The new teaser trailer may not give much away, but there are a few big takes from it. We get glimpses of Predators wearing ceremonial armor, some of whom are brutally killing each other in what appears to be a test of might. We also see Dek moving stealthily through an alien environment and trying not to draw attention to himself, Thia using a futuristic firearm to potentially try to kill Dek, and glimpses of the mysterious foe, which is blacker and more imposing than the Predators themselves. The locations where the Predators and the android appear to be hunting look huge and natural, giving a first impression of the scope of the movie.

How it Changes Things

It’s already becoming clear from the first Predator: Badlands teaser trailer that this film will have a very different vibe than prior Predator films. Instead of focusing on human prey and their hunt by a monster that outclasses them at every turn, Badlands instead turns the Predator into the hero, with the titular monster serving as the big bad that the two leads must take down together. This is a big shift, and the potential to explore character depth and backstory here is fascinating, as well as the character development that a single Predator who may need to win back his honor among his kind could lead to. We’ve never been on the other side of a Predator film like this, and it’s a welcome change in approach.