Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios, Marvel
Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg has some big plans for the future of the Predator franchise.
20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands is now playing in United States theaters. Directed by Trachtenberg, the film stars Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as a Yautja named Dek and Elle Fanning as a Weyland-Yutani synthetic named Thia. This is the third Predator movie helmed by Trachtenberg after 2022’s Prey and 2025’s Predator: Killer of Killers.
What did Dan Trachtenberg say about Predator: Badlands and The Avengers?
Speaking with Variety, Trachtenberg was asked if the final scene of Predator: Badlands, which teases a confrontation between Dek and his mother, is meant to set up a sequel.
“What I love about that ending is that it works as a final twist on the story that we’ve just been seeing, but also sets up an expectation for something that I think is pretty groovy,” he said. “If I were to go forward, I don’t think that would be the whole reason, but that would be a very cool element to include.
“…What’s so great is we now have all these interesting characters, and who knows what the next one is? I didn’t know the next one was going to be Killer of Killers or Dek’s story, and then it ended up we doing both at the same time. There are many open doors to walk through next, that’s for sure.”
When asked how far into the future he’s planning future Predator movies, Trachtenberg compared his approach to the franchise to how the MCU handled The Avengers.
“It can all go out the door once we start putting pen to paper on stuff, but I’ve looked as far as I could to feel comfortable about what I’m doing,” he explained. “Every movie is a complete thought, not that much unlike the early Marvel stuff before the first Avengers movie, where it’s like, those are great movies, and lo and behold, we’re actually setting up that things could come together in a delicious way. But they weren’t like, ‘See how everything’s interconnected like crazy all of a sudden!’ So I’m trying to learn that lesson and make sure that any of these movies that we do are awesome ideas for movies on their own.
“…It’s hard. It’s fun to geek out and think, ‘Oh my god, wouldn’t it be cool if…,’ even on a movie that you’d never expect that to happen in. But it’s only cool if the journey there is equally worth taking.”
