- "First hunt. Last chance."
- ―Tagline
Predator: Badlands is a 2025 science fiction action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg from a story he co–wrote with Patrick Aison. It is the ninth film in the Predator franchise, and is a separate project from Prey 2.[1]
Predator: Badlands is a standalone film,[2] and is not a sequel to Prey. It primarily takes place on Genna, though the story starts on Yautja Prime. Timeline-wise, it takes place after any preceding Alien or Predator film[3] — a deliberate decision in the director's part taking into account of Alien: Romulus was released at the time of the film's production and Alien: Earth being confirmed to be set in its own continuity.[4]
Plot[]
On Yautja Prime, Dek is a runt Predator training in battle with his brother Kwei. Knowing their father Njohrr would deem him too weak to survive, Dek takes a vow to hunt the Kalisk, an unkillable apex predator who even the Yautja fear, on the lethal planet Genna, in order to earn Njohrr's approval. Before he can leave, Njohrr arrives, orders Kwei to kill Dek, and he defies the order, remotely activating his transport ship to take Dek to Genna while attacking his father. Dek is forced to watch helplessly as Njohrr executes Kwei.
Upon crash-landing on Genna, Dek faces numerous environmental dangers from both flora and fauna. He reluctantly allies with Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic whose team was destroyed while attempting to capture the Kalisk. Thia offers to help Dek track the Kalisk in exchange for reuniting her with her severed legs. Later, they are joined by a native creature, which Thia names "Bud," which marks Dek as clan with its spit. Meanwhile, Thia’s synthetic sister, Tessa, is reactivated and begins tracking Dek’s group.
After discovering the remains of her team, Thia contacts Weyland-Yutani and attempts to repair herself. The Kalisk confronts Dek, and though he manages to sever its head, the creature regenerates and defeats him; however, it spares his life after detecting Bud’s scent. The Weyland-Yutani team arrives, captures Dek and the Kalisk, and holds them for study. Tessa begins experimenting on Dek, but Thia intervenes and Tessa deems her weak because of her emotions, slating Thia for deactivation. Thia then helps Dek escape.
Returning to where he fought the Kalisk, Dek realizes that Bud is its child and decides to rescue both Thia and the captured Kalisk. Lacking his Yautja weapons, Dek uses the resources of Genna to create organic weapons. He and Bud attack the Weyland-Yutani base, destroying many synthetics. Dek helps the Kalisk escape, and it destroys much of the facility. Tessa, now in a mechanical power loader mech and armed with Dek’s Plasmacaster, kills the Kalisk, but is ultimately destroyed by Dek and Bud when she attempts to kill Thia.
Dek returns to Yautja Prime, and delivers Tessa’s skull as a trophy to Njohrr, demanding a cloaking device as a reward from his father. But when denied, he avenges Kwei by disarming and restraining Njohrr in the same way he did to Kwei. Njohrr says he can surrender and join the clan, but Dek says he has his own clan now, as a grown Bud bites off Njohrr's head. As he takes his father's cloak, Thia states he is now a full-blown Yautja. Immediately thereafter, a large spaceship arrives as Dek prepares for a confrontation with his mother.
Cast[]
- Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek;[5] he also voices Njohrr
- Elle Fanning as Tessa & Thia[6]
- Mike Homik as Kwei[7]; Stefan Grube voices Kwei
- Reuben De Jong as Njohrr
- Rohinal Nayaran as Bud
- Cameron Brown as Drone Synthetic
- Alison Wright as MU/TH/UR (voice)
- Matt and Ross Duffer as the voice of Kwei's ship
Development[]
Work began on Badlands after the release of Prey. After the afforementioned film's success, Dan Trachtenberg stated that he did not want to create a sequel to the film. When asked what he wanted to do instead, he listed a series of ideas. 20th Century Studios decided to go with two of them, with Badlands being the first to be released, with a second film set to follow suit.[8]
The film's story was written by Dan Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison, the latter penning the screenplay.[9] Trachtenburg wanted to push the franchise's boundaries in a similar manner to what Prey did in regards to giving audiences a protagonist "they rarely get to root for" (in Prey's case, an Amerindian protagonist). In Badlands, this transformed into the idea of making the Predator the protagonist.[10] According to Trachtenberg, "the Predator never wins [in the films]. They're supposed to be the greatest hunters in the galaxy, but humans seem to be really formidable and have always taken them down. But, thinking of a movie where the Predator wins, I didn't love the idea of making a slasher movie [where] the bad guy is the winner. I really wanted to see if there was a way to make that feel like a really emotional and visceral journey. One where you can connect with the Predator."[11]
Thematically, Badlands took inspiration from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in that both films explore familial themes. Another recurring motif was the idea of characters appearing one way, only to be revealed as something else. Dek, Thia, and Bud all fit into this paradigm.[12]
Compared to prior Predator films, Badlands takes far more inspiration from expanded universe lore. The design of Yautja Prime is a case in point. Similarly, a Yautja language was designed for the film. It was designed to be a "proper language," with comparisons drawn to Elvish and Dothraki from The Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones respectively. The person who designed the language was the mentee of Paul Frommer, who designed the Na'vi language in Avatar.[13]
The desire to develop a language came from Trachtenberg. However, despite this element of worldbuilding, Tratchenberg has stated that he intends Badlands to be story-focused rather than lore-focused, citing The Phantom Menace as a negative example of the latter. Tratchenberg also intended Badlands to be an inversion of the Predator formula, with a Yautja hunted by a foe and using guile to survive, rather than a Yautja hunting humans.[13]
As of the time of its release, Badlands is the only film in the Predator franchise to take place in the future (as in, compared to the 20th/21st century). This is represented in the advanced technology found in the film compared to prior installments. The technology depicted in the film was "built from the ground up."[13]
In August 2024, it was stated that the film's plot is split between two main plotlines, which dive into the bond between two different sisters, their familial ties put to the test as they pursue divergent paths and missions.[6] In November 2024 however, it was stated that the movie's protagonist will be the titular Predator.[14] This was reinforced at CinemaCon 2025, which stated that the Predator is the film's protagonist.[10] The Predator, an outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia, and embarks on a tracherous journey in search of "the ultimate adversary."[15] This creature is being pursued by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which has sent a synthetic force to secure the beast for their own purposes.[3] While the company was also famously coveted Xenomorphs, it has since confirmed said alien species won't be featured in the film.[16]
Very intentionally, it is the furthest into the future in both “Predator” and “Alien.” When we were making it, I wasn’t really sure what was going on with “Alien: Romulus” and I don’t even know how aware I even was of “Alien: Earth.” So I just didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I wanted to make sure we were doing our own thing, and selfishly, I’d also done so much “Predator” in different time periods that I was excited for this to be in the future, even past “Alien: Resurrection.”
The decision to set Badlands after any Alien or Predator film was an intentional one. At the time of producing the film, Tratchenburg wasn't sure of the plot details of Alien: Romulus, and knew even less about Alien: Earth. In order to avoid any potential overlap, Badlands was set beyond Alien Resurrection, which prior to Badlands, was the film set furthest in the future of either franchise. An additional consideration was that after directing Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, both of which take place in the past (relative to the 21st century), Tratchenburg wanted to direct a Predator film set in the future.[17]
Production was expected to begin in July, 2024.[9] As of February 2024, Predator: Badlands had primary focus at 20th Century Studios (as opposed to Prey 2).[1]
Filming was carried out in New Zealand in August, 2024, with the working title of "Backpack."[6] Filming concluded in October of the same year.[8] 90% of the shoot was carried out in New Zealand wilderness areas.[13] At least some of the remaining 10% was carried out on sound stages just south of Auckland, simulating environments such as a crashed Yautja ship, a Weyland-Yutani research base, and simulated redwood trees.[3]
The Yautja weapons in the film were crafted by Weta Workshop.[3]
A teaser for the film was shown at CinemaCon 2025, which showed "a futuristic wasteland, filled with dystopian armies and a creature that the Predator is hunting that can’t be killed."[10]
It was originally unclear whether Badlands would have a theatrical release. In late 2024, when asked on the subject, executive producer Asbell stated "yes. And no."[8] It was later confirmed the film will be released in theaters on November 7, 2025.
- "We'll see where it ends up, but our hope for it is that it can be a PG-13 that feels like an R. That's kind of our hope. And really, what that's about is just being able to broaden out the audience for a movie like this. We don't have any humans in the movie and so we don't have any human red blood. So we're hoping that's gonna play to our advantage. We're going to go as hard as we possibly can within those constraints, and we think we'll be able to do some pretty awesomely gruesome stuff. But in colours other than red."
Unlike previous installments, the content rating of Predator: Badlands was confirmed to be PG-13 rather than R-Rated. However, as explained by Ben Rosenblatt, this was more attributed to little to no human presence in the film; while graphic depictions of violence and gore would be as prevalent, they would be creature-on-creature or android-related.[18][19]
Gallery[]
Promotional[]
Stills[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Despite the presence of elements from the Alien universe (e.g. Weyland-Yutani and synthetics), Badlands is not considered an Alien vs. Predator movie.[3]
- This is the first film in both franchises (or all three) to have its soundtrack composed by more than one musician; Sarah Schachner and Benjaming Wallfisch both returned from director Dan Trachtenberg's previous Predator movies, Prey and Killer of Killers, respectively.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hermanns, Grant (February 9, 2024). "Prey 2 Finally Confirmed, First Casting Talk Report Breaks A Major Franchise Tradition". Screen Rant. Retrieved on May 12, 2024.
- ↑ Kroll, Justin (February 9, 2024). "Dan Trachtenberg To Direct New Standalone ‘Predator’ Movie ‘Badlands’ As 20th Century Expands On Universe". Retrieved on May 15, 2024.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Tristan Ogilvie. "12 Things We Learned Visiting the Set of Predator: Badlands". IGN. Retrieved on October 7, 2025.
- ↑ IGN. "Predator: Badlands avoids Alien continuity issues". Retrieved on April 6, 2025.
- ↑ https://www.predator-movies.com/news/predator-badlands-introduce-yautja-prime-predator-language--expand-lore
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Cassidy, Mark (August 27, 2024). "PREDATOR: First Plot And Character Details For Dan Trachtenberg's BADLANDS Leak Online". SFF Gazette. Retrieved on August 31, 2024.
- ↑ https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/predator-badlands
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "A Secret ‘Predator’ Movie, An ‘Alien’ Sequel and ‘Speed 3’ on the Table: A Chat with 20th Century Studios Boss Steve Asbell". Retrieved on 25 October 2024.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kit, Borys (February 9, 2024). "Prey Director Dan Trachtenberg to Helm New Predator Movie Called Badlands". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on February 10, 2024.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Josh Wilding. "PREDATOR: BADLANDS First Look Revealed At CinemaCon As Elle Fanning Reveals Some Unique First Plot Details". SFF Gazette. Retrieved on April 6, 2025.
- ↑ "‘Predator: Badlands’ Came From a Desire to Do Something New, With a Dash of ‘Star Wars’". i09. Retrieved on September 24, 2025.
- ↑ "Dan Trachtenberg Tells IGN He's Well Aware Predator Purists May Criticize Predator: Badlands, but Insists 'Retreading and Remaking the Same Thing Over and Over' Risks Upsetting Everyone". IGN. Retrieved on November 7, 2025.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Matt Donato. "‘Predator: Badlands’ – Dan Trachtenberg Previews His “Big, Crazy Swing”". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved on April 27, 2025.
- ↑ Wilding, Josh (November 15, 2024). "PREDATOR: BADLANDS First Look Revealed; PREY Follow-Up's Unexpected Lead Character Revealed". SFF Gazette. Retrieved on November 18, 2024.
- ↑ Josh Wilding. "PREDATOR: BADLANDS Logo Released Along With A Plot Synopsis Revealing Setting, Characters, And More". SFF Gazette. Retrieved on April 6, 2025.
- ↑ Wesley Yin-Poole. "Predator: Badlands Director Confirms 'There’s No Xenomorph in This Movie,' So the Aliens vs. Predator Rematch Is Going to Have to Wait". Retrieved on September 24, 2025.
- ↑ "‘Predator: Badlands’ Director Dan Trachtenberg on That Cliffhanger Ending, Why ‘The Avengers’ Could Influence Future Films and the Surprise ‘Stranger Things’ Cameos". Variety. Retrieved on November 11, 2025.
- ↑ "Predator: Badlands Is Confirmed PG-13 Rather Than R-Rated, and Fans of the Famously Violent Franchise Certainly Have Opinions About That". Retrieved on October 7, 2025.
- ↑ "Producer Explains Why ‘Predator: Badlands’ Was Meant to Be a Boundary-Pushing “PG-13” Movie". Retrieved on October 7, 2025.
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