By Zach Johnson
20th Century Studios' Predator: Badlands tells the story of Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Predator exiled from his clan. In a quest to prove his worth, he travels to the deadliest planet in the galaxy to hunt an unkillable creature, the Kalisk. There, he finds an unlikely ally in a severed and stranded robot named Thia (Elle Fanning). Predator: Badlands is directed and produced by Dan Trachtenberg, a two-time Emmy® Award nominee for Prey (2022) who also directed the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers (2025), both of which premiered exclusively on Hulu. Predator: Badlands is the first movie in the Predator Universe that centers on the species known as the Yautja — and it's also the first in the franchise to make the Predator both a protagonist and an underdog.
"Dek is a monster, and he behaves as ferociously as you'd expect," Trachtenberg said. "Dimitrius gives a performance that's incredibly powerful and intimidating, but taps into subtle vulnerabilities to draw the audience in. Dek is part of a [pantheon] of characters who are antiheroes, who are rogues, and yet you still pull for them to do the right thing."
Elaborating on that point, Schuster-Koloamatangi said he "didn't want to make Dek human, because he's not human; he's a Predator. He will rip your face off if you come at him the wrong way. But we've never seen a Yautja in a setting like this before. He's the runt of the litter. He's vulnerable. He's never been on a hunt, so he hasn't earned what the other Yautjas have. For instance, he doesn't have a cloaking device or a shoulder cannon, and his gauntlets are compromised early on. That really enhances the story in terms of how much you invest in Dek. You see him as an underdog, and everyone's felt like that at least once in their lives. We've all felt excluded before, so it's commendable when you see something as monstrous as a Yautja go through all these obstacles and find the resilience to pull himself out of that. I think people love to see that journey, and it makes them want to root for him."
A Predator Evolves
When Predator — which pitted Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) against a technologically advanced extraterrestrial — was released in 1987, it created an instantly iconic character that rivaled that of "Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees," Trachtenberg said. "They are all forces of destruction, but from the very beginning, the Predator had already distinguished itself as more than a creature just based around fright."
The key differentiator, he argued, is that Predator "combined so many different genres."
"That was the first time I had ever seen a movie like that, that started out as a military action movie, then became a horror movie, then a slasher movie, then a science-fiction movie," Trachtenberg explained. "Embracing that component has allowed me to make movies [within the Predator Universe] that are also unique and original and surprising."
With Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg said, "We've taken full advantage of that. We thought, 'What kind of culture would create a species with that mindset?' We looked to our own history, to the more Spartan-like cultures. I thought a lot about the high fantasy of Conan the Barbarian, and the way those cultures are portrayed, and concocted the Yautja."
After he was cast in the film, Schuster-Koloamatangi immersed himself in the Predator Universe and had many conversations with Trachtenberg about how to create a Predator unlike anything audiences have ever seen onscreen before. "Dan gave me a lot of freedom, and he put a lot of trust in me as a performer to bring this character to life," he said. "It was about homing in on who this particular Yautja was, because he's such a unique character, and it's a unique story that we're trying to tell. It was fun trying to figure out who Dek was."
Trachtenberg, for one, can't wait for audiences to meet Dek.
"I would say Prey is to The Terminator what Badlands is to T2," Trachtenberg said, referencing two of Disney Legend James Cameron's iconic films. "This is a real, giant, visceral thrill ride, but it also has an enormous, heaping dose of heart and emotionality."
Predator: Badlands opens exclusively in theaters on Friday, November 7, in IMAX®, Dolby® Cinema, RealD (3D), Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens. The previous films in the franchise — from 1987's Predator to 2025's Predator: Killer of Killers — are now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for U.S. bundle subscribers.