Predator: Badlands is set to be a very different kind of entry in the franchise, with seven elements setting it apart from what has come before. Released in 1987, the first Predator movie pitted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch and his team of elite commandos against one Predator, also known as a Yautja, in a Central American rainforest. The success of the film led to four follow-up movies in the main franchise, as well as two Alien vs. Predator spinoff movies, all of which have evolved the IP in various ways.

Now, the franchise is gearing up for its next release with the upcoming Predator: Badlands. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg and with a script by Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison, the film is the latest installment after the acclaimed Prey (2022), which took the franchise back to the 18th century. Badlands features Elle Fanning in a leading role as Thia, with Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi set to play Dek, a Yautja outcast. While the film isn’t set to hit theaters until November, it’s already poised to push the franchise forward due to some exciting changes.

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Predator: Badlands Finally Makes The Yautja The Protagonist

Dek Will Be A New Kind Of Franchise Hero

If there’s one thing that has been true about all previous Predator movies, it’s that the Yautja have been the primary source of antagonism for the movies’ heroes. As seen in the chart below, these heroes have always been humans, with Schwarzenegger’s Dutch followed by Danny Glover’s Mike Harrigan in Predator 2 (1990), who was followed by Adrien Brody’s Royce in Predators (2010), and so on. Most recently, Amber Midthunder led the cast of Prey as Naru, a Comanche warrior who faces off against a more primitive Yautja.

Predator: Badlands features a franchise first with Dek, who is set to make a Yautja the primary point-of-view character after a long line of human protagonists. Dek has been cast out from his tribe due to being a runt, and the story will follow this Yautja as he embarks on an epic adventure, joining forces with an unlikely ally along the way. Dek’s status as an outcast is clearly designed to make this alien more empathetic than past Predators, and Badlands is set to be an interesting test regarding whether audiences embrace a non-human protagonist.

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Predator: Badlands Is An Alien Crossover Outside Of AvP

Elle Fanning’s Character Has A Major Alien Connection

Released in 2004 after both the Predator and Alien franchises had fizzled somewhat in their popularity, the first Alien vs. Predator movie from director Paul W. S. Anderson brought the Yautja and the Xenomorph together for the first time as enemies. Critically, the film was very poorly received, earning only a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was financially successful enough to warrant a sequel. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem followed in 2007 and earned even more negative reviews than its predecessor, and this sub-franchise, which is considered a separate enтιтy from the main movies, has since remained dormant.

As revealed in the Predator: Badlands trailer, though, the upcoming film is bringing the world of Alien back into the fold once more. Thia is shown in the trailer to be an android, sporting Weyland-Yutani logos on her white eyes during one sH๏τ. It doesn’t seem like audiences should expect a Xenomorph to show up this time, but this crossover confirms that the two franchises take place in the same universe, and it could be used to set up further crossovers down the road. Alien: Romulus (2024) director Fede Alvarez already teased he’s open to the idea.

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The Predator & “Human” Lead Will Work Together In Badlands

Dek & Thia Will Make For An Unconventional Team

Previous Predator movies have all featured a fairly simple dynamic between humans and the Yautja: the former and the latter are adversaries. This remains the overarching conflict in all installments in the main saga, but there is an exception to be found in Alien vs. Predator. This crossover movie features protagonist Alexa (Sanaa Lathan) and a Predator briefly joining forces to defeat a Xenomorph Queen, but this is a surprise third-act development, and it’s not a dynamic the larger story is built around.

Predator: Badlands puts a team-up between the Yautja and a “human” front and center. The human in this case is Thia, a Weyland-Yutana android, but she will seemingly be the primary human-like character in a story that is otherwise more deeply focused on the Yautja. It’s unclear exactly how Thia and Dek’s bond will develop in terms of why one needs the other, but the fact that they will be working together for a large part of the story means Badlands is already poised to be very different from Prey and the other installments that preceded it.

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Predator: Badlands Will Visit Yautja Prime

The Predator Homeworld Hasn’t Been Prominently Featured In The Franchise

The Predator: Badlands trailer features a number of surprising reveals, but one particularly exciting development is the return of Yautja Prime, the home planet of the Predator species. This planet has appeared in the franchise before, particularly in multimedia expansions. It shows up in the novelization of Predator 2, for example, in addition to the Predator: Homeworld comic series. Its only notable movie appearance is in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but here it’s featured relatively sparingly, with most of the action taking place on Earth.

Yautja Prime will be one of two primary locations in Predator: Badlands along with Kalisk, a planet used as Dek’s hunting ground. The inclusion of Yautja Prime as the main setting opens the door for a deeper exploration of Yautja culture and their societal hierarchy, as well as the alien flora and fauna that dominate the planet. Visually, this will make Badlands quite a departure from previous installments. Though Predators was the first installment to take place on an alien world, the setting was still similar to Earth in many ways.

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Predator: Badlands Features A Returning Director For The First Time

Dan Trachtenberg Made A Big Impression With His First Franchise Entry

John McTiernan directed the original Predator, but opted not to return for the sequel, with Stephen Hopkins instead stepping in to helm the project. Nimród Antal directed Predators, which was positioned as a franchise reboot, and Shane Black then helmed his own soft reboot with the poorly-received The Predator (2018). Trachenberg, after finding success with 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), directed Prey, and that film ended up becoming the most well-received entry in the franchise since the original.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Prey features a glowing score of 94%, with critics generally agreeing that the film is just what the franchise needed. The film goes back to basics in many ways with its premise, but presents a compelling protagonist with Naru in addition to plenty of action. The reception to this installment evidently opened the door for his franchise return with Badlands, and it suggests the film is in good hands. In fact, Trachtenberg could become an even more prominent creative force for the franchise, since Prey 2 is reportedly still in development.

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Predator: Badlands Upgrades The Yautja’s Weaponry In A Big Way

A New Kind Of Predator Sword Is Here

The Predator’s arsenal of weapons has continued to evolve over the course of the franchise, but the alien has consistently displayed a love of bladed weaponry and plasma blasters. As a film set hundreds of years in the past, Prey strips away some of the Yautja’s more high-tech weaponry, showing the alien hunting with more primitive tools. Predator: Badlands, however, takes place at some point in the future, and that means at least one new weapon is joining the creature’s arsenal.

While the plasma blasters are seemingly making a return in Badlands, the most eye-catching new weapon featured in the trailer is a substantial upgrade to the Yautja sword. Dek and another Predator are both shown wielding swords with glowing red edges, giving them a lightsaber-like quality. Purely in terms of visuals, this will give fight sequences an added sense of style, but functionally these new swords could make the Yautja even more ᴅᴇᴀᴅly as they do battle against each other and their enemies.

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Predator: Badlands Will Introduce The Franchise’s Biggest Monster Yet

Dek’s Hunting Target Is Unlike Any Other In The Franchise

Though not fully unveiled in the trailer and appearing only in flashes, Badlands is set to introduce an entirely new alien into the franchise. There have been different kinds of Yautja before, including a particularly large new variant introduced in The Predator. This 2018 film also features Predator Hounds, dog-like beasts used for hunting. Badlands, however, features a mᴀssive alien creature that leaps around on all fours, making Predator Hounds and Dek look miniature by comparison.

“You’re hunting something that can’t be killed,” Thia says in the Badlands trailer, teasing just how big of a threat this new monster will be. Dek is also shown surrounded by rubble as he faces off against this monster, speaking to just how destructive and dangerous this new creature is. It remains to be seen how exactly this new monster will fit into Predator: Badlands, but it is evidently going to make Dek’s quest even harder to accomplish.