Predator: Badlands Director Reveals Why He Reversed the Franchise’s Formula

The formula that has made the Predator franchise so successful is undergoing a major change in Predator: Badlands, according to director Dan Trachtenberg.

Why did the Predator: Badlands director alter the franchise?

The Predator movies before Badlands depicted the battle between humans and extraterrestrials. The predators are the hunters, and the humans are the prey. In Badlands, the predator becomes the hunted and aligns with an android to fight against his species.

Trachtenberg told GamesRadar+ about his desire to invert the franchise and create a fresh take on the iconic character.

“I’ve always been interested in characters trying to prove themselves. The real special of Badlands is that it is not just another Predator movie, and we’re not just doing the thing where you cut to the Predator and it kills people one by one,” Trachtenberg said. “Every chapter [in the series] brings its own special engine to the franchise, and the fun of Badlands is really the inversion of it all – that this time, the Predator is the one being hunted, and he is the one needing to prove himself. Badlands is thematically linked to the entire franchise in that way.”

Predator: Badlands stars Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, an outcast Predator within the Yautja species who aligns with Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani android, and “embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.”

Trachtenberg directed Badlands from a screenplay by Patrick Aison. Producers include Trachtenberg, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, and Brent O’Connor.

By the time Badlands comes out, it will mark Trachtenberg’s third Predator movie. His first, Prey, was a prequel that followed a young Comanche woman’s battle against a Predator in the Northern Great Plains in 1719. Prey set viewership records for Hulu upon its release in August 2022.

Trachtenberg’s second film in the franchise, Predator: Killer of Killers, is an animated adult anthology about three warriors facing the intergalactic hunter. Predator: Killer of Killers is now streaming on Hulu.

Predator: Badlands opens in theaters on November 7, 2025.

Source: Comingsoon.net