First Teaser for Predator: Badlands Teases Epic Predator Lore

Expectations are high for Badlands, and the teaser trailer doesnt disappoint. But its a new take on the film series franchise, too: The Predator is no longer the antagonist in the movie.

The first trailer for Predator: Badlands, a new installment in the 20-year-old franchise, has hit. Though it barely scratches the surface, it hints at some interesting developments, including a de facto hero for the film: the Predator itself.

The Movies Premise: Meet the Predator aka Dek

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi plays Predator: Badlands hero Dek, an outcast juvenile from his clan. He teams up with a mysterious character, an android woman named Thia, played by Elle Fanning, who could very well be a femme fatale.

The teasers opening credits read, The deadliest hunter in the galaxy has become its prey. They show Dek as an agile predator, stealthily traversing rocky and grassy hills, but the Predator from the franchise of films in which this movie was featured is mostly in the background.

The Movies Monster

In this installments teaser, were looking at The ultimate challenge the deadliest threat of all Something that cant be killed. Is it another alien from another creature-of-the-week like the Predators have been fighting in each of the movies? Or is it an Alien, another deadly monster from another sci-fi franchise (yay for Alien and Predator crossovers!)? We see what may be a Xenomorph skull, but not much else, and the something is never named. At the moment, its the bait for audiences to buy movie tickets to Badlands when it opens on Nov. 7.

The Prequel and the Spinoff

It is rumored that part of the action in Predator: Badlands is set on the Predator home world. In the first teaser trailer for Badlands, theres a glimpse at the end of the huge alien, but it mostly hints at an upcoming storyline in the larger Alien/Predator shared universe by showing glimpses of alien plants and landscape, a predator city or settlement, alien architecture, and a whole clan of Predators, some of whom are locked in duels of combat, or maybe ritualized ritualized combat.

The cast and crew, the movie is a departure from the more recent films in the franchise, like 2018s The Predator. Director Dan Trachtenberg and co-writer Aaron Guzikowski have already completed one Badlands prequel for the studio in the form of Prey, the 2022 critically acclaimed reboot of the franchise. Though Badlands was never announced as a sequel, Preys characters, mythology, and set design laid important groundwork for the story and world-building of Badlands. Since Badlands takes place on a completely different continent, its an open question as to whether Trachtenberg will attempt to expand and explore Predator history and culture and perhaps integrate more of Preys back story into the universe. The Prey movie was lauded for peeling away at the cultural accretion and taking the series back to its roots: a very stripped-down, stark, two-person version of its original mythos of the Predator alien as an unstoppable death machine, stranded with a woman as prey in 18th-century America. Badlands teaser, however, suggests the movie might go in a much more gonzo direction.

The android character Thia is another big draw and the most powerful presence in the film. Played by Elle Fanning, the character is another key focus of the first teaser and a major shift in focus for the film. She exhibits the android traits of moving in robotic precision and speaking in a deadpan monotone; her character exhibits what Trachtenberg calls a soulless empathy.

Predator: Badlands is already in the works for another spinoff anthology series, the animated Hulu show Predator: Killer of Killers. But thats for a later date, when the Alien universe is already quite primed for the Hunter again.

Sources/More Info: Images and details in this article were revealed in the first trailer for Predator: Badlands released by 20th Century Studios on March 21, 2023. The poster was released on May 2, 2023, in The Guardians Premium newsletter.

Directors return to the Monster

Dan Trachtenberg is back at the directors helm. For the rookie moviemaker, Prey reboots the franchise with a female warrior protagonist who battles a Predator from the new Alpha Species in the 18th-century Texas Panhandle. The latest film, Badlands, is something of a sequel/prequel to Prey, as Trachtenberg returns as director for the second chapter. Prey was featured in 2022 and quickly found an audience on Hulu after its release. According to Deadline, Preys primary ratings through Hulu and HBO Max after three weeks of release are in line with the recent Alien franchise titles; in fact, word of mouth for Prey exceeded audience expectations for the film.

Releasing Date

November 7, 2023: Theatrical release.