When Prey was released on Hulu in 2022, not only was it a critical darling but a streaming hit that made it clear movie fans are still invested in the Predator franchise when it's handled well.
Filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg returns for next year's Predator: Badlands which, while not a direct follow-up, is set in the same world. Plot details are few and far between, but he tells Empire that this movie's protagonist will be the Predator itself.
"The creature is front and centre, leading the charge," he teases. "He’s still badass, 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."
Trachtenberg would go on to explain that he wanted to "find 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."
There will still be human characters, including Elle Fanning who reportedly takes on more than one role in Predator: Badlands. "She faced intense challenges on this movie - dramatically, physically, logistically," the director teases.
Of course, this won't be the only Predator feature we get in 2025. 20th Century Studios President Steve Asbell recently revealed that Trachtenberg has helmed a second, secret movie which will debut on streaming.
"After Prey became a success, Dan [Trachtenberg] came back and said he didn’t want to do Prey 2. And we’re like, 'What do you want to do?' And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool," the executive explained. "We’ve actually done two of them. Two are coming out next year."
"One I can’t talk about yet, but the other one is the live-action Predator film with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. That’ll be out theatrically sometime next year." He'd go on to call Badlands "an absolutely bonkers idea" and a "sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is."
As for the animated movie, we've since heard it will be an animated anthology, featuring stories about pirates and samurai.
Predator: Badlands arrives in theaters on November 7, 2025. The first behind-the-scenes image can be seen in the X post below.