Many worried that the “Predator” film franchise would go dormant after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, but that wasn’t the case.
Filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg defied the odds and delivered “Prey,” the 2022 direct-to-Hulu film which revitalised the franchise with a critically acclaimed period piece take on the premise.
We also know Trachtenberg returns with “Predator: Badlands” next year which has more of a futuristic setting, but it turns out there’s another “Predator” film on the way beyond that one.
In a lengthy new interview with THR, 20th Century Studio chief Steve Asbell was asked if ‘Badlands’ would get a theatrical release. He revealed the existence of this surprise extra “Predator” film:
“Yes, a Predator movie will have a theatrical. I’ll tell you very simply. After Prey became a success, Dan [Trachtenberg] came back and said he didn’t want to do Prey 2. And we’re like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool.
We’ve actually done two of them. Two are coming out next year. One I can’t talk about yet, but the other one is the live-action Predator film with Elle Fanning that just wrapped in New Zealand. That’ll be out theatrically sometime next year.”
The Fanning-led one is ‘Badlands’ which Asbell confirms is the one coming out theatrically. Of that project he has nothing but wild things to say:
“It’s titled Badlands and it is an absolutely bonkers idea. It is a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is. And I mean, it’s awesome. It is so nuts. But in Dan, we trust.”
They trusted him so much in fact that Asbell confirms Trachtenberg also directed this secret second “Predator” film that will be coming sooner than you think:
“There’s a second Predator movie that we have different plans for. Dan has actually directed both… there’s a secret Predator movie that will come out before the theatrical one but I can’t say anything about yet.”
He also touched upon the possibility of another “Alien vs. Predator” film when asked if that’s coming:
“Probably… It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point. And we’re not just going to bang it out.”
“Predator: Badlands” is currently dated for a November 7th 2025 release.
