Predator: Badlands director says the titular creature will be the hero. Wait, what?

Since the beginning of the Predator franchise, the character dynamics are abundantly clear: humans are heroes, and the predators are villains. In Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg is flipping the script and making the titular creature a hero.

In Empire Magazine’s exclusive preview of Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg explained how he wanted a Predator that the audience could connect with and root for while still keeping its monstrous qualities.

“The creature is front and center, leading the charge,” Trachtenberg said. “He’s still bada**, but there’s something there that touches you emotionally, too. Creating a character you connect with, but are also super-intimidated by has been challenging. But exciting.”

WORLD-EXCLUSIVE 🚨#PredatorBadlands will have the #Predator itself as its hero, director Dan Trachtenberg tells Empire.

"The creature is front and centre," he says.

READ MORE: https://t.co/y3tFVXA6h2 pic.twitter.com/3ukKkVYwCA

— Empire (@empiremagazine) November 15, 2024

Trachtenberg previously wrote and directed Prey, the excellent prequel set in 1719 that pits a young Commanche woman (Midthunder) against a primitive version of the Predator. Prey received critical acclaim, especially for its female protagonist and representation of the Comanche Nation. Wanting to replicate Prey’s genre-pushing approach for Predator: Badlands is why Trachtenberg decided to make the Predator a hero.

Per Trachtenberg, he wanted “another essential piece of cinema that does what Prey did spiritually — pushing the franchise’s boundaries, letting us root for a hero we rarely get to root for — but in a different way. And that transformed into this big idea of rooting for the Predator.”

Most of Predator: Badlands‘ plot details remain under wraps. The film stars Elle Fanning in dual roles. Trachtenberg also shot a secret Predator movie, so there will be two films with the dreadlocked alien in 2025. The secret movie has no release date, but it’s scheduled to come out before Badlands.

Predator: Badlands opens in theaters on November 7, 2025.