Fresh Look at ‘Predator: Badlands’ — This Time, the Hunter Is the Hero

A fresh look at Predator: Badlands is here, and it’s making waves with fans of the long-running sci-fi action series. The Predator franchise has been around since the late ‘80s, but it’s recently found new life thanks to director Dan Trachtenberg.

His 2022 film Prey, set in the 1700s, showed a Comanche warrior facing off against a Predator in what turned out to be a big hit. Now, he’s back with something even bigger, a movie where the Predator isn’t the monster in the shadows, but the main character we follow.

This new film, Predator: Badlands, takes place in the future, on a faraway planet. The main character is a young Predator named Dek. He’s different from the others of his kind, smaller, not as strong, and looked down on by his own people. Basically, he’s the underdog of the Yautja species. Dek is played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who also learned the Predator language just for the role.

His companion in the film is Thia, a human-like android built by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Elle Fanning plays Thia, who becomes part of Dek’s dangerous journey to prove himself.

Director Dan Trachtenberg talked about what makes Dek special. “He’s a thing of few words, pretty blunt. He cuts straight to the point. Literally and figuratively,” he said. He compared Dek to well-known characters like Conan the Barbarian and Mad Max, tough loners who don’t say much but get the job done. Dek’s mission is personal: he wants to show his worth in a world that doesn’t think much of him.

Trachtenberg explained why he wanted to make a movie from the Predator’s point of view. “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?’”

The movie is part of a bigger plan that Trachtenberg started after making Prey. According to him, he had three ideas, one became Prey, the second is Killer of Killers, an animated Predator project on Disney+, and the third is Badlands. He said there’s still one more idea he hasn’t made yet, which means we might be seeing more Predator stories in the future.

Even though Badlands is a standalone film, it still connects to the larger Predator universe. This time, we get a deeper look at the Predator culture and their home planet. To help bring that world to life, the team hired the same linguist who created the Naʼvi language in Avatar. A full Predator language, both spoken and written, was created just for the film. Dek’s body is shown using a practical creature suit, while his face is brought to life with digital effects so he can show emotions more clearly.

The movie was filmed in New Zealand starting in August 2024 and wrapped up by the end of that year. It was shot under the fake title Backpack. The visual effects have been a huge part of the production, with every single shot in the movie needing digital work. Big names like ILM, Wētā FX, Framestore, and other studios worked on the visuals to make the world and characters look as real as possible.

Predator: Badlands is being released by 20th Century Studios and will be in theaters on November 7, 2025. It’s also going to have a major panel at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, where fans will get a closer look at what’s coming.

If you’re a longtime fan or just into wild sci-fi action, this could be the most exciting Predator story yet, especially since this time, we’re not running from the Predator… we’re cheering for him.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!