In Predator: Badlands, Elle Fanning teams with … a predator!

By Dan Girolamo Published April 23, 2025

In the Predator franchise, humans are the heroes, and the Predators are the villains. These two forces have contested life-or-death battles around the world in places like the jungles of Central America, the Great Plains of America, and the streets of Los Angeles. In Predator: Badlands, the roles are reversed, as the Predator becomes the protagonist.

20th Century Studios released the first teaser for Predator: Badlands, which welcomes audiences to a world of hurt. At the center of Badlands is Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a Predator and the outcast of his clan. While exploring this strange planet, Dek meets Thia (Elle Fanning), who appears to be an android for the Weyland-Yutani corporation.

The logline reveals that the Predator “embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.” However, Thia believes Dek is “hunting something that can’t be killed.” The teaser ends with the Predator squaring off against a dinosaur-esque creature before it cuts to the title.

If it feels like you’re rooting for the Predator, that’s the goal director Dan Trachtenberg set out to accomplish. “Pushing the franchise’s boundaries, letting us root for a hero we rarely get to root for, but in a different way,” Trachtenberg told Empire about why the Predator became the protagonist. “And that transformed into this big idea of rooting for the Predator.”

Trachtenberg directs Badlands from a screenplay he co-wrote with Patrick Aison. Trachtenberg single-handedly revitalized the Predator franchise with 2022’s Prey, the excellent prequel that pits a young Comanche woman up against a ruthless Predator on the Great Plains in 1719. Prey streamed directly to Hulu in August 2022, garnering high viewership and critical acclaim, including six Emmy nominations.

2025 offers not one, but two Predator movies. Trachtenberg and Micho Robert Rutare teamed up for an animated anthology movie, Predator: Killer of Killers. The sci-fi adventure follows three elite warriors — a Viking raider, a ninja, and a WWII pilot — and their ferocious showdowns with the Predators. Predator: Killer of Killers streams on Hulu on June 6.

Later this year, Predator: Badlands opens in theaters on November 7.