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Predator: Badlands took over Hall H at San Diego Comic‑Con 2025, and its panel kicked off with a high‑impact 15‑minute preview that had the crowd roaring. Director Dan Trachtenberg and stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster‑Koloamatangi unveiled exclusive footage, revealing the film’s bold new direction: the Predator, Dek, is the story’s central character, not its villain.
The preview starts off gritty and intimate: two Predator brothers, Dek and Kwei, fighting to the death in a cave while their father watches, with sharp tusks and colder morals. Dek loses, gets banished, and is dropped onto a brutal “death planet” where survival means clawing through toxic plants, violent beasts, and, as a plot twist, teaming up with a rogue synthetic human named Thia, played by Elle Fanning.
Director Dan Trachtenberg who also helmed Prey said the film flips the Predator formula. This isn’t about humans being hunted. It’s about a Predator finding purpose, fighting shame, and maybe caring? The footage teased insane visuals, biomechanical landscapes, and yes, one very gnarly spine rip.
The panel also teased the film’s design, upgraded Predator suits built for emotional range, and confirmed a spine‑rip sequence Trachtenberg called "one for the books" intended to be among the most iconic in Predator lore.
Set to release November 7, Predator: Badlands is shaping up to be part coming-of-age, part intergalactic survival horror, and 100% a wild ride.
More details on Predator: Badlands
In February 2024, Predator: Badlands was officially announced as a standalone entry in the Predator franchise. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, known for Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, and co-written with Prey writer Patrick Aison, the film draws stylistic inspiration from Frank Frazetta, Terrence Malick, Conan the Barbarian, Drax the Destroyer, Shane, Mad Max 2, The Book of Eli, Clint Eastwood westerns, and the video game Shadow of the Colossus. Elle Fanning was confirmed in the lead role in August 2024 after talks began in June.
The film's plot synopsis reads,
In the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
Set on the Predators’ home-world, Badlands explores their culture in a self-contained story influenced by the franchise’s expanded universe. It features Dek, the first Predator protagonist in the series, played by stuntman Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who learned a newly developed Predator language created by the linguist behind Avatar’s Naʼvi. Studio Gillis designed Dek’s suit, while his facial expressions were enhanced through motion capture.
Speaking about the film's premise, Trachtenberg told Entertainment Weekly,
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"That hasn't happened in a Predator movie. The predator never wins, but how can that still be a beautiful movie, not just a movie from the bad guy's perspective — how can that still really be a full-meal experience? So that's what led to Badlands."
Predator: Badlands will be in theaters on November 7, 2025.
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