The hunt is on; this time, the Predator isn’t the villain — he’s the lead badass. The full-length trailer for Predator: Badlands has arrived, teasing a sci-fi action story that’s as wild in concept as it is packed with franchise breadcrumbs. Director Dan Trachtenberg, staying on with the franchise after the acclaimed Prey and the recent animated entry Predator: Killer of Killers, pits together an outcast Predator and a limbless android on the deadliest planet in the galaxy.
Watch the trailer above, then read on for what’s going down on Kalisk — and why fans are already buzzing about a possible Alien crossover.
A Predator and half an android on a death planet …
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Meet Dek (played by New Zealand actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a Yautja “runt” desperate to prove himself. Exiled from his clan, he sets out alone on a proving hunt — and finds an unlikely companion in Thia (Elle Fanning), a bio-weapons division android from Alien megacorp Weyland-Yutani. She’s rebooted after taking serious damage (read: sliced in half), and still manages to throw down against alien beasts with attitude and a blade.
Their dynamic is a major draw. “One talkative, one laconic,” Trachtenberg tells Empire, calling them a “fun, mismatched pairing.” And while there’s plenty of gore and action, the director insists the “character stuff really pops” in this one.
Trachtenberg points to the 2005 action-adventure game Shadow of the Colossus as a major influence, elaborating in an interview with Bloody Disgusting: “As inspired as I am by movies, I’ve been very inspired by video games [like] Shadow of the Colossus, where you have a protagonist paired with someone else who provides color and connection. There’s a thing with a horse in Shadow of the Colossus that’s devastating when you play the game. And so [Predator: Badlands] was a little bit inspired by that in terms of wanting to see the Predator with someone else, this character who’s the opposite of him. He’s very laconic, [Fanning] is not. She’s capable in ways that he is not. Physically, she’s got a real thing that I’m so excited for you guys to see. But I want to let eventually some of that speak for itself.”
The Weyland-Yutani connection
The trailer doesn’t hide it: Thia’s unpowered eyes reveal the Weyland-Yutani logo — a clear signal that Predator: Badlands is operating within the Alien universe.
That connection came naturally when considering how Trachtenberg wanted to populate the story. “I always wanted no humans in this movie,” he tells Empire, “so I thought it might be fun to have the Predator with a robot. Then I thought, ‘I know a company that makes robots…’”
Fanning is playing two characters in the film — only one of whom, Thia, has been revealed so far.
What else is lurking on Kalisk?
The trailer hints at far more than just Predator vs. nature. There’s a wall of skulls, a planet-wide hunt for “a creature that can’t be killed,” and, excitingly, a towering mech suit straight out of Aliens. Who’s at the controls?
“We might not be alone in this hunt,” Thia warns, teasing what could be the film’s biggest reveal. Xenomorphs? Rival hunters? Or something else entirely?
Whether or not we get a proper crossover with the Alien franchise in this chapter remains to be seen, but for now, it’s clear Trachtenberg’s laying the groundwork for something bigger. He’s previously said he had three ideas after Prey. Badlands is the second.
Release date
Predator: Badlands opens in Australian cinemas on November 6 and hits U.S. theatres on November 7.
