Roughly three months after its theatrical release, we can safely say Predator: Badlands is among the sci-fi action-horror series’ finest entries. From its extraterrestrial setting to all the new additions to Predator lore, it’s an adventure unlike anything else we’ve seen before in the franchise.
Right as the movie decloaked on Hulu and Disney Plus, and ahead of its DVD and Blu-ray release on Feb. 17, we had the opportunity to chat with Dan Trachtenberg, who has now revitalized the Predator franchise three times with wildly different movies. Our conversation focused on questions we as fans had after Badlands’ credits rolled and also whether we can look forward to getting more answers in the future. Therefore, this was a spoiler-heavy talk. You’ve been warned…
Even before becoming what many would call ‘the Yautja overlord’ with Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg was no stranger to sci-fi, having broken into Hollywood with an impressive short based on the video game Portal and the stunning thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane. He’s also done some TV directing with The Boys and Black Mirror, among others. That’s an impressive resume.
Predator: Badlands’ defining trait is that it eschews the series’ previous focus on gore-y action and light horror elements in favor of becoming an old-fashioned sci-fi adventure flick influenced by fantasy classics like Willow and video games — Trachtenberg always brings up that medium as a bottomless source of inspiration — like the iconic Shadow of the Colossus. By all accounts, that should be an easier sell than another R-rated romp in cinemas, but I wondered if there had been apprehensions about it internally.
“On the whole, everyone was very supportive, but if you had to really scratch through the surface, the roles were kind of reversed in that the studio was more nervous about the tonal shift and was thinking more of the hardcore Predator fan, and I, as a hardcore Predator fan, was more excited about the tonal choices we were making and wanting to make it a thrilling experience for hardcore fans that have seen a lot of the same kind of movie,” he explained.
At the same time, he was aware that could potentially open up the series to people that hadn’t been paying attention to it before: “You know, making sure that all boxes are checked, not just the one, because I think it takes a lot more to grab people off their couches and into the movie theater seats, so there was a little bit more hesitancy at the studio, but on the whole … It’s an easy no to a movie that’s got no humans in it and has a monster with a robot strapped to its back, and instead of saying no, they said yes.”
Among the DVD and Blu-ray’s many bonus features, there are deleted scenes and even bits of previz that reveal ideas that didn’t make it into the (breezy) final cut. Just in case, we had to ask about scenes that he was a bit sad to let go of.
“There’s a big synth fight that we had in the middle of the movie that’s on the disc. There are parts of that I was bummed weren’t in the movie, and then we kept working and finishing the movie, and we got to incorporate a lot of things that were there… Everything has moments of ‘oh, that was a cool thing’ that people can see, but I obviously much prefer the final cut of the film,” he revealed. We also were told every major scene that was shot and cut is in the home release one way or another.
On that note, we tried to cut a bit deeper and ask about Easter eggs that maybe hadn’t been noticed yet by the most eagled-eyed Predator fans. Badlands might be a simple movie on the surface, but it’s filled with little details, bits of lore, and cheeky winks many moviegoers appreciated. Is there anything else left to uncover?
Trachtenberg made an effort to think about bits the fandom hadn’t noticed before pointing to the ship’s trophy room: “I’ve spoken about a couple of them… There’s a skull on the wall, I’m not sure how noticeable it is, that I think I’ve seen people fan-guess at what it is that are wrong about. It’s a little bit cuter of a thing, so to speak… There’s probably more.” Of course, the little things he wasn’t expecting anyone to notice were more personal. “My daughter’s name is Luna. We called her Luna Bug her whole life, and that’s a character name in the movie. And there’s dates in there that are birthdays of crew and things like that.”
If you were worried about Trachtenberg leaving the Predator franchise behind after his recent first-look deal with Paramount, he reassured us he’s still toying with more ideas, like a third post-Prey project he’s been teasing since last summer: “Yeah, it’s something I’m still thinking about, yeah,” he simply said with a smile. Again, more projects could happen without him in the director’s chair — Killer of Killers was co-helmed by Joshua Wassung — but everything’s pointing to him not going anywhere anytime soon even if a non-Predator project might be next.
Getting a bit nerdier and connecting to the fantastic Killer of Killers, this was a great opportunity to ask about Dek’s tribe, their tech, and the look of the Yautja guards that served the protagonist’s father; it was pretty much the same design we’d seen in Killer of Killer’s final act. It “doesn’t necessarily mean anything” about the timeline of both movies (Badlands is set in the far future) according to Trachtenberg, who stayed mum about the rest.
Pushing a bit more in that general direction, we raised the question of whether those Yautja we saw in the animated movie were kidnapping those who’d bested hunters in the past as a “general rule” of Yautja Prime’s society or as their own side thing only one tribe does. Unsurprisingly, Trachtenberg is saving definitive answers on that matter for later, but he said something about some fans’ read of this huge reveal and addition to the mythos: “In their minds, that’s not sore losing. In their minds, it’s a great honor to be immortalized and to be able to compete in the arena. That’s a high honor for them, that’s not sore losing… Is it everyone? We’ll see.”
Last but not least, we couldn’t finish the chat without briefly talking about Elle Fanning and her dual role as synth “sisters” Thia and Tessa. They and the other Weyland-Yutani drones, as well as MU/TH/UR’s upgraded return, made an explicit connection the Alien franchise and added to the movie’s recurring themes of complicated families, but was it always the plan to have two Elles in the story?
“I don’t know why, but it was always two or even more. At some point, the drone, maybe that’s everyone… all Elles, like it’s one model. But no, it was always two and I think it came out of wanting the antagonist story to be reflective of Dek’s, and Dek is dealing with funky family things. I loved the idea of his reluctant partner Thia and the antagonist, that they’re dealing with family stuff … Dek’s dealing with his father and then they’re dealing with their Mother from the Alien franchise. All that was the rich playground we wanted to draw on for the movie,” the director and co-writer explained before we signed off.
Needless to say, that “playground” is what ultimately elevated the movie and made us fall in love with a group of refreshing characters we’d like to see on another adventure even if there’s still room (and demand) for Predator to go hardcore. Xenomorphs on the horizon or not, we can’t wait to see what’s coming next from Trachtenberg’s mind and into this universe.
