“Predator: Badlands” is the second “Predator” movie this year, after director Dan Trachtenberg was seemingly handed the keys to the franchise. An alum of Netflix’s Black Mirror series, Trachtenberg has taken the “Predator” franchise in a positive direction with installments like “Prey” (2022) and the animated “Predator: Killer of Killers” (2025).

Approaching 40 years old, the “Predator” franchise has largely been secretive about its primary alien species, the Yautja, opting to sparingly drop hints about their origins and culture. “Predator: Badlands” flips this concept on its head, for better or worse, doing a deep dive into the main character Dek’s familial struggles and personal motivations, removing all mystique behind these intergalactic hunters. This gives the audience a closer look at the Yautja than we have ever seen before. They attempt to humanize Dek, in a franchise where the predator has been a wordless warrior on a mission to hunt every beast.

This “Predator” installment is vastly different from its predecessors. All main line films, to include Trachtenberg’s, involve the Yautja hunting humans, whether that be highly trained military operators, Los Angeles gangsters, or a young Comanche woman in 1719. Instead, Dek pursues a dangerous species called the Kalisk on a fictional planet that even his father is afraid to hunt.

Elle Fanning plays the main “humans” in the story, in the form of Thia and Tessa, synthetic humans from the Weyland-Yutani company. This is important because this fictional company is from the “Alien” series, which has had a crossover with “Predator” before. Thia was part of an expeditionary mission to hunt the Kalisk as well, before losing her legs, forcing Dek to carry her on his back like Chewbacca carries the broken C-3PO. Thia behaves as a way for the human audience to digest the interactions of the various aliens present in the film.

Fanning’s characters are also the only English speakers in the film, as Dek and his family speak the Yautja language. Created by linguist Britton Watkins, the Yautja language utilizes clicks, guttural groans, and sounds violent, representative of their vicious and aggressive nature.

Shot in Auckland, New Zealand, “Predator: Badlands” has beautiful nature shots and is imaginative with the flora and fauna found on this fictional planet. Watching the predator navigate new terrain is exciting and is a break from previous entries where they traverse lands understood by humans.

This is not your typical “Predator” movie. Dek does not wear a mask for much of the film; he employs weapons from the foreign land he finds himself in and does not yet have the invisibility cloak famous in “Predator” movies. This newest entry in the franchise allows for a potential “Predator” cinematic universe. This is a fun movie for “Predator” fans and enjoyable for anyone interested in science fiction. “Predator: Badlands” was released Nov. 7 and is now showing in theaters.

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