James Whitehead
20th Century Studios has released the first trailer online for Predator: Badlands; watch the new trailer below.
Predator: Badlands is scheduled for a theatrical release on the 7th of April and is the next installment in the franchise following the surprise 2022 hit, “Prey”, which reinvigorated interest in the classic, alien, action series. I stressed to mention the film will in fact be a theatrical release. Despite the rave reviews from fans and critics for “Prey”, the studio did not show the same level of confidence in the last project as the film went straight to Hulu; a US streaming service and was not given a theatrical release at all. Something that proved to be a very costly mistake given the overall quality of the final product.
For those that haven’t watched “Prey”, it gave us a Predator film set in 1917 on the great plains of North America, pitting a young Comanche warrior with extremely primitive tools against the fierce alien hunter. The film was grounded and well-directed but more importantly stripped the franchise back to its core to demonstrate how terrifying the Predator can be. It was a wonderful success and although mistakes were made with its release strategy, at the very least it does seem like the studio have learnt their lesson, promising the director of Prey a theatrical release for his return to the franchise with Predator: Badlands.
Dan Trachtenberg returns to direct not only this project, but the studio also confirmed another collaboration coming, in the form of an animated anthology film titled, “Predator: Killer of Killers”, which is also coming this year. The studio has well and truly given Trachtenberg the keys to the Predator kingdom, and for those that enjoyed Prey this is an extremely positive step in regaining some momentum in the franchise.
“Predator: Badlands” looks to expand the universe, with this story being set further in the future, on what seems a training ground for the Predator race. And features one of the creatures seemingly as a protagonist alongside Elle Fanning in the role of Thia.
Whilst of course the expected tension, action and brutality in the trailer is all there to be found, by far for me the most intriguing and potentially significant moment in the trailer occurs around Thia.
For those that didn’t catch it, Fanning’s character Thia is shown to be android. A synthetic human sent to the planet for research. But in one frame, when her eyes roll over, we can clearly see the branding of “Weyland Corp” which is in fact a reference to the Alien franchise; fueling the growing speculation that we could be in fact moving towards another Alien Vs Predator crossover.
Below is the image of Elle Fannning’s Android Thia, as well as an image from the most recent Alien film, Alien: Romulus, in which the android character Andy’s eyes also roll over to reveal the same company logo.
David Jonsson as Andy in Alien: Romulus (2024)
Whilst this does not directly link Badlands with Romulus, it does go to show the intent to connect these two worlds, or more importantly remind us that they’re connected. But with the trajectory from recent successful projects captivating audiences again, I would not for a moment be surprised to hear any official plans or confirmations that we will again see these two forces of nature collide on screen.
In the meantime, we have two Predator projects to look forward to, and you can keep up to date on all progress and news for both, right here.
Images courtesy of 20th century studios
