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.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.