AUGUST 2025 | EDITED BY BETH WEBB
Get ready to root for an alien killer
ALL THE ESSENTIAL INTEL, FROM HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND
THE FILMMAKER BEHIND PREDATOR: BADLANDS ON TAKING THE INTERGALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTER INTO UNCHARTED TERRITORY
WORDS TOM ELLEN
BEFORE DAN TRACHTENBERG entered the picture, the Predator franchise tended to adhere to a straightforward formula. Over three decades and four films (six including the Alien Vs. Predator outings), the routine was almost always the same: dreadlocked alien(s) cause mayhem in the present (or near-present)-day, before ultimately having their arse(s) handed to them by a group of musclebound, mostly male humans.
That all changed with Prey. Trachtenberg’s superb 2022 actioner wound the Predator universe way back to the early 18th century, tracking a young Comanche woman as she defended her tribe from a brutal extraterrestrial hunter. And this year sees Trachtenberg pushing the dreadlocked-alien envelope even further, with two new Predator films — the first of which (Killer Of Killers) is an animated anthology spanning the Viking era, feudal Japan and World War II, while the second (Badlands) is a far-futureset adventure in which the Predator is... the hero.