When Predator: Badlands lands in theaters tomorrow, it’ll mark one of the boldest reinventions in franchise history — a film where the Predator himself becomes the hero. But as director Dan Trachtenberg revealed in a new interview, the story almost looked very different. In fact, the filmmaker behind Prey initially imagined the creature hunting Nazis during World War II according to an interview with The Direct.
“The very first nugget of the idea was, what if the Predator wins? And I just really didn’t want it to be a slasher movie where the slasher wins. I really wanted you to root for the guy, and then, in rooting for it, I was like, well, I guess he could be, like, set in WWII, and he’s kicking Nazi butt or something. But even then, I felt like that’s not really a special new movie. And then it became, wait a second, what if he’s really the protagonist of his own story, and I get people to really root for him on his own journey, his own adventure.”
Who Plays the Predator in ‘Badlands’?
As cool as that idea sounds, Predator: Badlands began to take shape as a deeply unconventional sci-fi adventure — one where the Yautja warrior Dek, played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is an underdog rather than a hunter. “For Dek, I guess discovering him and building him from the ground up [was] really cool,” Schuster-Koloamatangi said. “What intrigued me the most about the script when I first read it was how different of an approach this is to any movie that has been in the franchise. I think having a Predator be the underdog is such a crazy premise.”
The actor explained that Dek is “undersized” and “the runt of his family,” which gives the story an emotional core rarely seen in Predator films.
“He’s on a mission, not only to hunt the biggest and baddest, but it’s a mission to prove himself. It’s a mission of redemption for him… I wanted to really just pay homage to what’s been before, but also inject a whole new energy into the franchise that I think really works.”
The film’s early concept of a Predator “kicking Nazi butt” may have been wild, but Trachtenberg’s final version may be even bolder: a mythic, heartfelt epic that turns one of cinema’s greatest hunters into an unlikely hero.
Predator: Badlands is in theaters now. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the Predator series.
- Release Date
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November 5, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Dan Trachtenberg
- Writers
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Dan Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison, John Thomas, Jim Thomas
- Producers
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Brent O’Connor, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
- Franchise(s)
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Predator
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek / Father
