Predator: Badlands is one of the most anticipated science fiction movies of the year, but the premise seemed like a confusing choice until recently, when another film helped to explain its setting. Following the Predator timeline, Badlands seemed to have made a confusing choice when following up on the last installment, Prey.

Despite the franchise appearing to be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, 2022’s Prey significantly revitalized faith in the series. While most of the Predator movies have appealed to fans of the franchise, they have had a difficult time attracting general audiences. Fortunately, that now seems to be changing, with the upcoming Badlands already building a great deal of hype with its latest trailer.

With the exciting future of Predator: Badlands and beyond, the franchise is beginning to move into unexpected territory. While there are reasons to be concerned about this major departure in the film’s setting and even tone, a recent animated film has helped to clarify the larger story being told. This helps to make the new film even more exciting.

Predator: Badlands Taking Place So Far In The Future Was Confusing At First

Many Expected Another Period Piece From Director Dan Trachtenberg

The setting of Predator: Badlands seemed like a very strange choice for the new movie. Prey was a huge hit with audiences, who loved seeing the 1719 Great Plains setting. The previous film took a bare-bones approach to the science fiction franchise, instead building a smaller conflict between Naru and a Yautja. This was intimate, powerful, and effective.

To capitalize on this success, Disney hired director Dan Trachtenberg to return for another Predator film. Many expected that he would follow up in a similar way, even perhaps making Prey 2 the next story in the franchise. If not that, most audiences expected a period piece in the same manner as Prey, which is not what has occurred.

Rather than a work set in the past, Badlands has made the bold choice to move forward to the future. In addition to this, the new film appears to be entirely set on another planet, in a completely new world. This wholly different outlook was a shocking choice, but seems effective; the trailer for Badlands has already provoked significant conversation.

Thankfully, there has been another Predator movie released this year, and that new film has gone a long way into explaining the trajectory of the franchise. The new animated picture did a great deal of work in building up the world of the Yautja, and explaining how the story of the new film will actually come together.

Predator: Killer Of Killers Explains Why Badlands Needed A Futuristic Setting

The New Animated Film Directly Connects To Both Prey And Badlands

Predator: Killer of Killers released recently on Hulu, and the new animated film helps to explain the overall scale of the franchise. Set across multiple different time periods, Killer of Killers lived up to expectations for a Prey sequel by inserting Predator characters into various time periods and settings. This saw the monsters fight samurai, Vikings, and fighter pilots.

However, it is the ending of Killer of Killers that is the most important element for the larger franchise. After besting the Yautja warriors, the victorious humans are abducted to what appears to be the Predator homeworld. This is in the future, and various time periods and elements are drawn together here, tying these disparate historical periods into one story.

The animated film’s ending seems to occur on the same planet that Badlands is set on, which makes these connections that much more important. When Naru is shown at the end of Killer of Killers, preserved in a capsule, the future for the franchise comes more clearly into focus. Every victor against a Yautja is being preserved in the new film.

This detail reveals that Badlands may in fact be Prey 2 after all. The entire plot of the new movie has been reported to follow a young Yautja warrior, but this could tie into the stories of the Predator’s frozen survivors like Naru. Seeing how this plays out, and what other franchise connections are explored, is a great promise.

Predator: Badlands’ Future Setting Is Also Big For Its Alien Crossover

There Has Been Talk Of Another Aliens Vs. Predator Project

While there has not yet been an Aliens vs. Predator film that lives up to the potential of the idea, discussions are ongoing about tying the two franchises together again. Following last year’s excellent Alien: Romulus, that franchise, just like Predator, may be winning back audiences once again. The health of both series makes a crossover increasingly likely.

By pushing Predator into the future, crossing over the franchises becomes an easier task. Links to Weyland-Yutani, the corporation in Alien, have been seen in the trailers for Predator: Badlands. The two clearly exist in the same world, and the future setting would allow the narratives to be tied in more directly.

With Alien teasing Predator and vice versa, another project in this vein will likely come about eventually. Hopefully, the filmmakers behind their respective franchises will first have the room to grow their individual stories first. However, by moving Predator to a futuristic setting, the franchise is making it much easier to introduce Alien elements to their story.

This New Era Setting Could Define Predator’s Future After Badlands

Trachtenberg Clearly Sees A Larger Direction For The Franchise

While it is possible that another film in the Predator series could be as much of a departure from Badlands as that film seems to be from Prey, it is clear that Trachtenberg has a larger story he wishes to tell. With that considered, future Predator films look likely to use this futuristic new era.

Examining the conflicts on that world and looking into characters, like the Grendel King, that were introduced in Killer of Killers creates a plethora of potential sequel possibilities. More than the connections to Alien, the franchise has already set itself up for all kinds of its own stories, many of which could see the return of popular characters from throughout the franchise’s past.

With the return of Naru teased in the future of this world, there are many other characters from the franchise who could come back. Many have speculated that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch could return, as he is likely to be contained in one of the capsules. This setup will surely be a major part of the future of the series.

Whatever films follow Predator: Badlands, it is exciting that a new future of the franchise is being explored. Rather than being committed to smaller stories on Earth, the Predator series is looking to the distant future, with a compelling setup that combines all their stories together. It will be exciting to see what this leads to in future projects.