Dan Trachtenberg is returning to the Predator franchise. The director received wide acclaim for helming 2022’s Prey , a prequel to the Predator films before it, where an 18th-century Comanche woman finds herself fighting against the franchise’s alien hunters (one of whom is pictured above).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new movie is titled Badlands and is set to begin production this July. Trachtenberg also co-wrote the story with Patrick Aison, with Aison penning the script.
While we don’t know much about the plot of Badlands, we do know that it’s not a sequel to Prey and takes place in the future. Like Prey, however, it’s also rumored to star a female lead.
The Predator franchise started with 1987’s Predator, which saw Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers muscle it out as they face off against an alien species who hunt other lifeforms for sport. Since then, there have been four more straight-up Predator films as well as two crossovers with the Alien franchise, 2004’s Alien vs. Predator and 2007’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
That’s a decent number of Predator films, but if one more Predator movie isn’t enough for you, don’t fret! THR also reported that 20th Century Studios is looking to expand the Predator universe with other projects, with Trachtenberg serving as the ringleader of it all.
No news yet on when Badlands will hunt you down in a theater near you. Given its production start time of this summer, however, it will likely come out sometime early in 2025.
