Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Movies | Tagged: 20th century studios, alien, predator, Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands Director on Navigating Two Franchise Timelines

The director of Predator: Badlands opens up about how he wanted to place the film at the furthest point of the Alien and Predator franchises.

Predator: Badlands is turning out to be exactly the kind of win the franchise needed to prove itself with modern audiences. During its opening weekend, the new sci-fi action film opened at number one and pulled in about $80 million worldwide, including $40 million domestic, which happens to be a record opening for a Predator movie. And early legs look pretty reliable too, with a worldwide total around $82.8 million so far on a 105 million budget, an A- on CinemaScore, and a fairly strong Rotten Tomatoes score that has critics calling it one of the freshest entries since the original.

Part of the buzz comes from where it sits in the larger Alien and Predator universe. Director Dan Trachtenberg has been clear that Predator: Badlands pushes things further ahead than anything we have seen before. And, when speaking about the timeline, he explained that the movie is set at the furthest point in the future for both franchises and talked about navigating around other recent projects.

Predator: Badlands Director on Timeline

He tells Variety, "Very intentionally, it is the furthest into the future in both Predator and Alien. When we were making it, I wasn't really sure what was going on with Alien: Romulus, and I don't even know how aware I even was of Alien: Earth. So I just didn't want to step on anyone's toes. I wanted to make sure we were doing our own thing, and selfishly, I'd also done so much Predator in different time periods that I was excited for this to be in the future, even past Alien: Resurrection."

Story-wise, Predator: Badlands takes place centuries from now on the hostile planet Genna. It follows Dek, a young Yautja who is exiled from his clan as a runt and given one last chance to prove himself by hunting the legendary apex creature known as the Kalisk. After crash landing, he teams up with Thia, a damaged Weyland Yutani synthetic who is stranded after her own mission goes sideways, and a small native creature nicknamed Bud. Together they face Genna's brutal wildlife, a rival Predator clan, and a Weyland Yutani team that wants to weaponize the Kalisk.

Dimitrius Schuster Koloamatangi plays Dek and also voices some of the other Predators. Elle Fanning plays Thia along with her more ruthless synthetic sister Tessa. The supporting roles are mostly other creatures and androids, which reinforces the hook that there are no human characters this time. That choice also lets the film lean harder into Predator culture and Weyland Yutani lore, including nods that connect it spiritually to the Alien side without turning it into a full crossover.

Predator: Badlands hit theaters in the United States on November 7, including IMAX and RealD 3D runs. And with the film positioned as the furthest step forward in both timelines (and already performing well), it feels like it's only a matter of time before they cross paths yet again.

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