Dan Trachtenberg successfully brought new life to the Predator franchise with Prey and kept that momentum going with the animated anthology Predator: Killers Of Killers. He’ll also be bringing us the next installment of the franchise, Predator: Badlands, set to hit theaters later this year. Once again, Trachtenberg has put a twist on the franchise, as Predator: Badlands will give us the Predator as the lead of the film.
While speaking with Empire, Trachtenberg teased Dek, our lead Yautja. Although Dek is seen as the “runt of the litter,” the director compares him to classic outcast heroes such as Conan the Barbarian and Mad Max. “He’s a thing of few words, pretty blunt,” Trachtenberg teased. “He cuts straight to the point. Literally and figuratively.“
Trachtenberg 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. “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?’“
If all goes well, 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, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. As we know from the teaser trailer, Thia is a Weyland-Yutani android. This marks another step towards reuniting the Predator and Alien franchises. I wonder what the future will bring?
Predator: Badlands will hit theaters on November 7.
