- twentieth Century Studios has launched the primary trailer for Predator: Badlands
- The sci-fi motion franchise’s subsequent film is hiding some huge secrets and techniques in plain sight
- Its teaser comprises an Independence Day Easter egg and robust ties to the Alien franchise
Almost 20 years have handed because the final Alien vs Predator (AvP) film landed in theaters.
But, primarily based on the primary trailer for Predator: Badlands, one other installment within the much-maligned crossover movie franchise – and an entry that would redeem that film collection in many individuals’s eyes as well – may be right here ahead of anybody anticipated.
That’s as a result of Badlands, one among this 12 months’s new films that’ll arrive on November 7, drops some not-so-subtle hints that it is an AvP film in all however title. Oh, and there is additionally an sudden reference to a different sci-fi movie franchise that signifies that it might exist in the identical universe because the Alien and Predator film collection.
But sufficient waffling! Watch Badlands‘ first teaser under and see in case you can spot the aforementioned clues earlier than I clarify all.
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As you may have observed, there is a very clear reference to the Alien films in Badlands‘ first-look footage through Elle Fanning’s character, who’s referred to as Thia.
For those that might need missed it, although: on the 0:25 mark, Thia’s eyes roll again into her head to disclose a telling signal that is not really human, however an android.
Thia isn’t any abnormal robotic humanoid, both – as *ahem* eagle-eyed viewers famous a emblem imprinted onto the again of her eyes indicating that she was created by the Weylan-Yutani Corporation. That’s the sinister fictional megacorporation that exists within the Alien franchise, which prioritizes earnings and experimentation on harmful alien lifeforms over the lives of its workers.
That’s not the one reference to Weyland-Yutani in Badlands‘ teaser. It’s onerous to make out however, on the 0:50 mark, a smashed-up, orange-colored truck will be seen on the fitting facet of the display – and it is adorned with the Weyland-Yutani emblem too.
Oh, and earlier than I overlook: scroll again to the very begin of the teaser and, amid the opposite skulls which are held on the wall of what is possible the Predator’s dwelling, look intently on the cranium sitting on the heart of the gathering. Look acquainted? That’s as a result of it is the cranium of one of many aliens within the Independence Day movie franchise.
Neat, eh? Although, that now begs the query of whether or not these films additionally exist in the identical universe and the Alien and Predator movies…
Why Predator: Badlands might secretly be the third entry within the Alien vs Predator film collection
Of course, these Weyland-Yutani Easter eggs might be nothing greater than easy reminders that xenomorphs (the aliens in Alien) and the yautja (the precise title of the Predator species) exist in the identical universe. However, would not it’s cooler if, in some unspecified time in the future, Badlands performs a story bait and change and turns into an AvP movie?
Awful although the earlier two AvP films are, I actually hope so – and that is right down to the people who’ve revived the Alien and Predator collection, two stalwart movie franchises of the ’80s and ’90s.
Dan Trachtenburg, who directs Badlands, can be the filmmaker behind 2022’s Predator prequel film Prey. That flick, which is out there on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally), is a movie I labeled as “the very best Predator film because the 1987 unique” in my Prey overview.
With Trachtenburg additionally on directing duties for Badlands, I’m assured he’ll ship back-to-back good entries as a part of his wider Predator franchise reboot. Indeed, Prey and Badlands however, one other Predator movie – an animated anthology flick referred to as Predator: Killer of Killers – may even make its debut this 12 months. It’ll be obtainable to stream at residence from June 6.
As for the Alien films, filmmaker Fede Alvarez gave us that franchise’s greatest installment since 1986’s Aliens with final 12 months’s Alien: Romulus. With a sequel to that big-screen providing at the moment in growth, the long run appears to be like equally brilliant for the xenomorph and facehugger-starring sci-fi horror movie collection.
Okay, however what’s all of this obtained to do with the likelihood that Badlands is definitely an AvP film? The trailer’s Weyland-Yutani nods apart, Alvarez has beforehand outlined what he’d prefer to see from a brand new AvP movie.
Speaking to Collider in February, the Argentine stated: “The approach I’d do it [a new AvP film], most definitely, if it might be completed this manner… It’s tougher to maintain secrets and techniques on-line… The greatest AvP would be the one that you simply don’t know is AvP till the opposite man exhibits up.
“You assume you’re watching a Predator film, after which they land in some place and there are creatures, and f*****g hell, it’s a Xenomorph. That would get me. ‘F**okay yeah!’ You’d go loopy.
#PredatorBadlands arrives in theaters and IMAX November 7. pic.twitter.com/6LIzcYbg54April 23, 2025
“Or, vice versa,” Alvarez continued. “You’re in an Alien film, after which immediately a mysterious creature is there, and you may hear that sound, and also you see the cloak, and also you go, ‘Is {that a} f****g Predator?’ And then seems it’s. That could be the way in which to do it, don’t you assume? Once you place it within the title, it’s like, ‘Spoiler alert.'”
When pressed by Collider as as to if he’d ever workforce up with Trachtenburg to make such a movie, Alvarez added: “I can’t communicate for Dan. At some level, as soon as there’s one other Alien, and I do know he’s engaged on a sequel to Prey, in the future if we really feel like, ‘Yeah, that’s what we can not wait to see, I believe that’s a film we might do.”
Is all of that Alvarez’s coded approach of suggesting Badlands might be one other AvP movie? Probably not, however I dwell in hope that I’m flawed!
