Predator: Badlands is the latest entry in the hugely popular sci-fi franchise, and perhaps the biggest question surrounding the project involves exactly when in the Predator timeline this sequel takes place. The answer will have major repercussions for both the Predator and Alien franchises, as Badlands is confirmed to be a part of their shared universe.

Thankfully, ScreenRant was given access to the Predator: Badlands set back in 2024, and many of these pressing questions finally became clear. The timelines may be difficult to follow thanks to all the Alien and Predator spinoffs over the years, but Badlands makes one important decision to simplify this problem.

Predator: Badlands Takes Place In The Distant Future

Predator: Badlands will go further into the future than either franchise has ever gone before. There’s been no confirmation of an official year, but this essentially confirms that Badlands will take place at least three hundred years from today. Alien: Resurrection currently holds the record for being furthest in the future, and that movie takes place in 2381.

The Predator movies are typically fairly contemporary, either taking place in the modern day or jumping into the past for cases like Prey and Killer of Killers. This means it’s going to be a huge jump for the franchise, and audiences can expect to see some major changes in the way Yautja society has changed and evolved over the years.

Predator: Badlands‘ story will visit several new locations, including the so-called “Genna World,” which is where Dek and Thia encounter the dangerous Kalisk. This further proves that the film is going to be a mᴀssive undertaking that develops the Predator franchise more than any existing sequel.

What Badlands’ Futuristic Setting Means For The Alien & Predator Franchises

This futuristic setting is exciting for two main reasons. Firstly, it’s going to be the first Predator movie set in the distant future. We’ve seen how the Yautja perform against humans from the past, and even from the modern day, but never learned how they fare against highly-evolved creatures from hundreds of years in the future. This raises the stakes mᴀssively.

But interestingly, it’s the Alien franchise that benefits the most from this huge time jump. There’s a much richer sense of interconnectivity to the Alien franchise; Predator sequels tend to be more self-contained, with fewer recurring characters and ongoing subplots between the movies.

Alien is the opposite, so the stakes are much higher for this time jump. The most recent projects, such as Alien: Earth and Alien: Romulus, have done a great job of making the Weyland-Yutani corporation seem like a living, breathing character in itself, so it’s going to be fascinating to see what the company is doing three hundred years from now.

ScreenRant was also told that Thia will be one of many synths included in Predator: Badlands, with zero biological humans appearing in her ship’s crew. This is a major change for Weyland-Yutani, as they typically sent humans on every mission we’ve seen throughout the Alien franchise.

The sequel’s producer, Ben Rosenblatt, also confirmed that Predator: Badlands‘ synths will be able to “feel” more than previous versions, noting that they’re far more sentient than David, Ash, or Bishop from the older films. This highlights just how much Weyland-Yutani has developed their technologies over the years, thus proving how crucial Badlands will be in the Alien timeline.

Unfortunately, this futuristic setting also comes with some drawbacks. Predator: Badlands‘ decision to jump so far into the future means it’s likely this sequel won’t have many tangible connections to previous movies or returning characters. Fans have been speculating about Arnold Schwarzenegger returning in Badlands, or the possibility of an Alien Vs Predator sequel, but that seems unlikely now.

How Predator: Badlands Can Affect The Future Of Alien & Predator

Dan Trachtenberg clearly has a distinct vision for the Predator franchise since taking creative control in 2022, but it’s not immediately clear how Badlands fits into that timeline. The film takes place much later than both Prey and Killer of Killers, essentially ruling out any connection between them all.

Incidentally, Rosenblatt confirmed that Prey 2‘s story hasn’t been abandoned, but they wanted to do something new and unexpected with Trachtenberg’s next movie instead. This means audiences shouldn’t necessarily expect the epilogue Killer of Killers to be paid off in Badlands, since Prey 2 is still officially on the way.

If there’s going to be a larger franchise connection in Predator: Badlands, it’s more likely to be an Alien one. While several sources have confirmed that Trachtenberg’s upcoming sequel won’t be an Alien vs Predator movie, the presence of Elle Fanning’s Weyland-Yutani synth means there’s something much larger going on.

Rosenblatt even confirmed a major twist for Thia at the end of Predator: Badlands, which seems like a surefire way to set up the next Alien property, or even sow the seeds for an AVP movie in the near future. Alien: Romulus‘ Fede Alvarez has often spoken of his eagerness to make AVP happen again, so the foundations are there.