Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg wanted to make a movie that “hadn’t existed before”.
The 44-year-old director said he aimed to make the upcoming action flick a unique experience that fans haven’t seen in the Predator franchise before, much like he did with 2022’s Prey.
Speaking with Empire magazine about creating Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg said: “You immediately think: Prey 2.
“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.”
Trachtenberg described Predator: Badlands as a “kind of buddy-comedy” between Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi’s hunter Dek and Elle Fanning’s Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia – a biomechanical humanoid.
The filmmaker added: “In general, I’m always looking for: what could happen only in this movie?
“Prey was a solo survival tale; this is a relationship story.”
Predator: Badlands follows the young hunter Dek (Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he has been outcast from his clan and sent to a remote planet, where he forms an unlikely alliance with Thia (Fanning) as the pair search for the ultimate adversary.
Trachtenberg added he wanted audiences to root for Dek – who will be the first protagonist Yautja in the Predator franchise.
He said: “This crazy adventure against monsters and the elements – only this time it’s a badass Predator against those things.
“We wanted Dek to be relatable, but without turning him into Luke Skywalker. He’s still a Predator – we had to allow him to be a d***. But a d*** you can root for.”
Trachtenberg previously revealed Dek had been inspired by action icons like Mad Max and Conan the Barbarian.
The 10 Cloverfield Lane director said of Dek: “He’s a thing of few words, pretty blunt. He cuts straight to the point. Literally and figuratively.”
Trachtenberg added Dek was viewed as the “runt of the litter” among his clan.
He explained: “That feels like a big idea, not just within Predator, but in sci-fi generally.
“In most sci-fi universes, the ‘creatures’ are either bad guys or sidekicks. In [Predator: Badlands] it’s, ‘What if you were with the creature on this crazy mission to prove itself, seeing everything through its eyes?’”
Trachtenberg thinks he has taken a “big, crazy swing” with Predator: Badlands – which will land in cinemas on November 7, 2025.
During an interview with Bloody Disgusting, he said: “It’s a big, crazy swing, and I think that’s what drives butts into seats.
“If you want the same old Predator experience, you can hit play on Predator or Prey or any other, whichever one is your fit.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.movies.yahoo.com ’
