Following the success of Prey, many Predator fans would have gladly welcomed more of Naru (Amber Midthunder). But with Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg set out to deliver something entirely new—the Predator as the hero.
“You immediately think: ‘Prey 2’,” Trachtenberg told Empire. “But with sequels, people sometimes get so caught up going, ‘This could happen next,’ they never stop to think, ‘Should it happen next?’ Prey was special because it was this big idea that hadn’t existed before. I wanted the next thing to be that, too.”
Predator: Badlands is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Elle Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. “In general, I’m always looking for: what could happen only in this movie?” he said, adding that the movie is “kind of a buddy-comedy” with Dek and Thia. “Prey was a solo survival tale; this is a relationship story.“
The director is eager for audiences to root for Dek. “That feels like a big idea, not just within Predator, but in sci-fi generally,” he said earlier this year. “In most sci-fi universes, the ‘creatures’ are either bad guys or sidekicks. In [Badlands] it’s: ‘What if you were with the creature on this crazy mission to prove itself, seeing everything through its eyes?’“
Trachtenberg followed up Prey with Killer of Killers, an animated anthology film that’s just begging for a sequel, especially after the new extended epilogue scene which was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this summer. If all goes well with Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg is more than ready to return for more. In fact, he already has a potential third idea ready to go. “After Prey, I had three ideas,” he said. “One was Killer Of Killers, one was Badlands and one… I haven’t done yet. So, there are other awesome ideas and time periods it’d be exciting to explore, and all that’s been part of our discussion for [what’s next].“
Predator: Badlands will hit theaters on November 7.
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