San Diego Comic-Con is just around the corner, and a new poster for Prey director Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands has been spotted in the wild.
The artwork features the movie's Yautja protagonist, Dek, with Elle Fanning's Thia on his back.
The recent trailer made it pretty clear that Thia was an android, but we now know that she's going to incur some major damage at some point, and need to be carried by Dek after losing her legs (possibly as a nod to Bishop from James Cameron's Aliens).
“One of the cool things about the movie is that we’re on Yautja Prime—there’s a lot in this movie from the extended universe," Trachtenberg said in a recent interview. "We insanely decided to treat [the language] properly like [Elvish] for Lord of the Rings or [Dothraki] for Game of Thrones, except for those there’s more precedent.”
“As inspired as I am by movies, I’ve been very inspired by video games [like] Shadow of the Colossus, where you have a protagonist paired with someone else who provides color and connection," adds Trachtenberg. "There’s a thing with a horse in Shadow of the Colossus that’s devastating when you play the game. And so [Predator: Badlands] was a little bit inspired by that in terms of wanting to see the Predator with someone else, this character who’s the opposite of him. He’s very laconic, [Fanning] is not. She’s capable in ways that he is not. Physically, she’s got a real thing that I’m so excited for you guys to see. But I want to let eventually some of that speak for itself.”
As it turns out, Fanning will actually play a dual role as twin "sisters" (we assume two versions of the same android model).
Finally, Trachtenberg made it clear that this is going to be a very different kind of Predator movie. “It’s a big, crazy swing, and I think that’s what drives butts into seats. If you want the same old Predator experience, you can hit play on Predator or Prey or any other, whichever one is your fit.”
Have another look at the trailer below in case you missed it.
Predator: Badlands is "set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary."
Trachtenberg directs and produces Predator: Badlands alongside John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, and Brent O’Connor. The movie opens exclusively in movie theaters on November 7 in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens everywhere.