PREDATOR: BADLANDS Set in Far Future to Avoid Timeline Issues and ‘Homework’

Dan Trachtenberg impressed fans with *Prey*, a *Predator* film set in 1719 that followed a young Comanche woman fighting the iconic creature. Now, he’s revisiting the franchise with a new installment taking place far in the future. In fact, Trachtenberg deliberately set *Predator: Badlands* so far ahead in time – and with connections to the *Alien* universe – that audiences won’t need to know anything about previous films to enjoy it. He made this choice to avoid any potential conflicts with the established timeline.

Director Trachtenberg recently spoke with IGN about his new film featuring Elle Fanning. Titled *Predator: Badlands*, the movie is set on a dangerous, faraway planet where a young Predator who’s been exiled will team up with a character linked to the *Alien* universe. However, fans don’t need to worry about how the recent *Alien* movies might affect *Predator: Badlands* – Trachtenberg has placed his film in the future to avoid any timeline conflicts.

We made a deliberate choice to set our movie far in the future. At the time, *Romulus* hadn’t been released yet, and I hadn’t seen it. I knew about *Alien Earth*, but wasn’t sure how it would turn out. We wanted to establish a timeline where all those events happened *before* our story began.

What I really appreciated about director Dane Trachtenberg’s approach to *Predator: Badlands* was his desire to make it accessible. He wasn’t interested in forcing it to fit neatly into existing *Predator* and *Prey* storylines, and he specifically wanted to create a movie you could enjoy even if you hadn’t seen *everything* that came before it. He and the team were aware of how much content there already was, and they didn’t want viewers feeling like they needed to do homework before watching!

Thanks, Dan! We appreciate you acknowledging both our enthusiasm as fans and our skill in untangling complicated timelines – something we’re really good at! It’s a relief to focus on just one date now: the movie’s release on November 7th.

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2025-10-17 01:02