Predator: Badlands - Dan Trachtenberg explains the major impact James Cameron had on the sci-fi action movie, here's all about it

The young Predator, Dek, sets out on a hunt in Dan Trachtenberg's third installment in the franchise, Predator: Badlands. Much like the early reactions, recent reviews confirm that Dan is the right filmmaker to lead the franchise forward. It feels like we can at least expect, or even deserve, another installment.

Dan recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter recently, where he discussed several aspects of the franchise. Among them was the involvement of the filmmaking auteur James Cameron. It was Cameron's words that gave him a vote of confidence in the project. He said,

"We drove separately to dinner, and when he came in and sat down, he said, “I was just thinking about what you’re doing, and I think it’s going to work.” So all that wind in my sails carried me back up to Auckland to tell my crew. The blessing of that guy — who has taken on some pretty impossible odds and pulled them off — was absolutely incredible."

We have to say, Predator: Badlands delivers, just like Dan's previous two films in the franchise. First, it was Prey in 2022, which is currently 94% fresh at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. That was followed by Predator: Killer of Killers earlier this year, earning a strong 95% score. As of now, his latest film stands at 86%.

James Cameron's Avatar shares something in common with Predator: Badlands

In his interview, the Predator: Badlands director shared that he spent some time at the edit bay of Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is the third film in James Cameron's franchise. Cameron's vote of confidence for Dan's film created another connection between the two franchises, the directors' shared involvement, to some degree, in each other's projects.

But there's one more connection that the latest film and Cameron's Avatar franchise share. The language expert who developed the Naʼvi language was also involved in developing a language for Yautja. Since this film delves deeper into Predator culture, creating an authentic language was essential to the story.

Although the original language expert wasn't actively involved, as he was busy at the time he was asked to work for the Predator franchise, he recommended his mentee to take on the task. Dan told ComicBook in one interview that,

"I should mention the language. We, insanely, decided to really treat that properly and worked with, we reached out to the guy who does the Na’vi language [in Avatar], who was very occupied, and recommended his mentee."

As you will see in Predator: Badlands, there are a lot of conversations going on in there, and everything, despite being a new language for us, feels authentic, just like the Naʼvi language.

This also suggests that more Predator films could follow Badlands in the future. If the team has worked that hard to bring an entire language to the screen, chances are, we will get to see more of the Yautja culture.

The odds of that seem even higher when you consider the film's the mid-credits scene.

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