Badlands’ Turns the Monster Into the Hero, and 8 Other Savagely Exciting Things We Learned On Set

Last August, Collider, along with several other outlets, traveled to Auckland, New Zealand, to visit the set of Predator: Badlands, knowing absolutely nothing about the film. It’s pretty usual for certain big IP movies to be shrouded in secrecy; however, you typically know what to expect before setting foot on the set of a Marvel or Star Wars movie. With Predator, there were endless possibilities, especially because we were told that the film would not be a sequel to Prey.

As soon as I stepped foot into the conference room on the studio lot, I was greeted by concept art lining all the walls, of a smaller-looking Predator carrying Elle Fanning (sawed in half) as a backpack, among many other things. It’s safe to say that the number of questions I had beforehand more than quadrupled. Even Ben Rosenblatt, a producer on the film, admitted his shock, “This is a movie where we’ve worked really hard to guard the secrets of, and I know this is like the standard speech, but it’s like for us, we are even surprised how little is out there about what we’re doing.” Before he began to break down what the movie was about, he had asked everyone in the room if we knew anything about the film. In unison, all the journalists shook their heads and just said, “Elle Fanning.”

‘Predator: Badlands’ Makes the Predator the Hero Instead of the Monster

Predator: Badlands marks a major first for the Predator franchise, as it makes the titular creature the hero of the story. The movie, which Rosenblatt noted is set way far into the future, after all the other Predator, Alien, and AvP films, focuses on Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), an undersized Predator on Yautja Prime living with his immediate family. Through a series of what Rosenblatt described as “both exciting and tragic events,” Dek sets off on a journey where he unexpectedly arrives on the foreign, faraway planet of Genna, the home of the unkillable beast known as the Kalisk. Dek sets out to find and kill this creature and bring it back home to prove himself to the rest of his clan. Then there’s Thia (Fanning), a synth from Weyland-Yutani who has been severed in half, who has been stuck in a nest on Genna, waiting for someone to save her, after originally being sent out by Tessa (Fanning), another synth.

Here lies the major conflict: both Dek and Weyland-Yutani are after the Kalisk, with the former interested in honor killing, while the latter wants to exploit the creature. The two strike a deal with each other. Thia will help Dek survive his journey if he helps her get her legs back, which she lost during her initial encounter with the Kalisk. This is also why the film was given the production name “Backpack,” as Thia spends a good chunk of the first half of the movie riding on Dek’s back. Rosenblatt also talked about finding the right balance for the movie’s tone.

We’re trying to strike a balance between all the cool badass stuff that you’d expect out of a Predator film, like lots of great action, lots of serious moments, and the badass stuff. But we also want it to be like an adventure film. So we’re actually going on an adventure with them, and we’re actually connecting with them and all that. So that’s the kind of balance we’re taking.

Here lies one of the biggest hurdles that the team behind Predator: Badlands had to overcome: the movie needs to help audiences emotionally connect with a Predator. Rosenblatt compared the methodology of Dek to that of the characters in the recent Planet of the Apes movies. Actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is actually playing Dek on the set (alongside stunt performer Toa Paranihi), but his face will be entirely redone with CGI.

‘Predator: Badlands’ Brings Back Someone Who’s Been With the Franchise From the Beginning (It’s Not Who You Think)

Image via 20th Century Studios

When you think of the Predator franchise, you’d be hard-pressed to find a certain character who stands out. In fact, none of the movies carry over characters. But it’s the design of the Predator that serves as the ultimate connective tissue. Alec Gillis, who helped design the original creature for the 1987 film alongside Stan Winston, was on set, retelling the story of how he was roped into redesigning the character on the set of the original film. “If you know the story of that film, then you know that they shot this movie out in the jungle, and it had a monster in it, and it was Arnold, and Joel Silver, the flamboyant, Joel Silver was producing, and John McTiernan was directing. And they weren’t happy with their monster. And it’s kind of legendary. And I know the folks that made the first draft of that monster, and I always felt bad for them because I kind of thought, like, ‘how does it get that far out of control where your director is saying, ‘and there we were in the jungle and we opened this crate and looked in, and we thought, what the hell is this?'”

Gillis has worked on every Predator film since the original, but feels like, now, years after the original, the universe is expanding a little bit more. Gillis spent months in Los Angeles with Trachtenberg and Rosenblatt designing new characters for the film, including not only Dek, but also the other members of his tribe, and the alien creatures of Genna, including a snake-like creature lovingly named Squirt. We were shown one of the puppets used for Squirt, with Gillis explaining his purpose in the film. Once Dek crashlands on Genna, he needs to forge his own weapons and gadgets from any material that he can scavenge. One of those is Squirt, which Dek coaxes and trains to essentially act as his shoulder cannon, spitting two different chemicals that, when combined, become explosive.

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A major obstacle was how Dek would talk in the movie. Gillis is a self-proclaimed proponent of practical effects and makeup, but as he and his team were trying out different methods to show off Dek’s face and how he talks, especially with his mandibles. They tried out a mixture of makeup and animatronics, but as they continued experimenting, one thing became very clear.

It was good. But I had to be the first to say, ‘I don’t, I think we can do better. And I think that we can do better through digital enhancement.’ And that’s where WETA Digital comes in. Because right around the time we were doing that test, we got to see the Planet of the Apes movie. And that has such spectacular performances. It’s undeniable. As an artist, I have to stand up for my craft, but I also have to be able to look a director in the eye and say, ‘you have to use the right tool for the right application.’ And if I’m going to ever complain like, ‘oh, that looks fake, that looks like CGI’ or whatever. I have to, conversely, be able to steer a director away from the shortcomings of the practical approach. And this has been a great opportunity for me to kind of be included in the digital approach as well. And then we sort of lift these barriers that are artificially created between the practical effects artists and the digital artists, and we are just character artists at this point.

The Synth Designs Draw From All Across the Alien Franchise

Image via 20th Century Studios

During our tour of the set, we also got to chat with Susie Glass, the main hair and makeup person on Predator: Badlands. Our large chunk of conversation was centered around designing both of Fanning’s characters, the severely damaged Thia and the antagonistic Tessa. When Glass was first brought onto the project, she only had Fanning’s face to draw off of, with Trachtenberg and Rosenblatt giving her a couple of instructions (including wanting to see damage on Thia). Since a good chunk of the film takes place on rugged terrain, Glass wanted to make sure the dirt and the grit looked believable. As a result, Glass and Trachtenberg looked and felt like “a bit of a gunslinger,” who had “seen some things.” Then there’s Tessa, whom Glass wanted to make both beautiful while still looking gritty and cool, without all the dirt and grime that’s one Thia.

Another aspect that proved to be quite the process was for Dek’s eyes, as the character is blind in one of his eyes. Predator eyes are already pretty distinct, the striking yellow with a single black pupil, and contact lenses were needed for both Dimitrius and his stunt-double. However, because of how physically demanding the role was, Glass had to make sure to request that the contact lenses had a clear bit painted around the pupil, with the stunt double’s being even more visible.

Glass had also teased another synth character, Abe, whom she called the “hero synths,” noting that the character was designed as a nod to Michael Fassbender’s David and Walter characters from the Alien franchise.

‘Predator: Badlands’ Is More Conan Than Star Wars

Image via 20th Century Studios

While many of the synths in Predator: Badlands may resemble humans, we have learned that there will be no actual human characters in the film. It’s a challenge, and one that could have been quite limiting, but Trachtenberg was clearly up for the challenge.

Part of the fun of it was that it was gonna be unusual and challenging. In concept, that was the fun of being limited. I remember someone saying or getting a lot of feedback. And the first movie I did (10 Cloverfield Lane), was a bottled, contained thriller, and everyone always was like, ‘oh, it’s so hard that you were making that one location, that’s such a challenge,’ and actually, the reality is that makes it way easier. Being inside that box and trying to find a way to make that interesting breeds more cool creative things. And the same thing with all the challenges with this. Being limited in language and being able to have to communicate so much more visually, makes everything that we’re doing that much more charge and the things that we are saying when he’s speaking, and what the filmmaking has to rise to the occasion to become. all is leveled up by having that limitation.

Trachtenberg revealed that Prey was initially planned to be a nonverbal movie, but that ultimately didn’t happen. He hoped to make Badlands nonverbal, “I said, oh, maybe this one, and then we started to fall in love with the story we were telling and the words that were starting to be concocted.” Trachtenberg had even claimed that he pitched the movie as like “Chewbacca and C3PO: The Movie.”

Badlands presented Trachtenberg and his team with challenges they didn’t fully expect. “The idea of him (Dek), and his friend (Thia) being half a person. That was like, just a normal walk and talk, just a normal scene in any other movie, not a big stunt sequence, not anything special, just to get to that baseline for us is incredibly complicated and time-consuming. She’s on wires, you know?” Over the course of shooting, Trachtenberg and his team had to come up with shooting different styles of rig, which made things progressively become easier and easier. By the time they shot the last scene with Dimitrius and Elle, the team had them just standing back-to-back and walking. During this, Trachtenberg thought to himself, “Why weren’t we doing this the whole time?”

Trachtenberg also reiterated Rosenblatt’s comment from earlier, calling Badlands an “adventure movie,” one of the ways that it will differ from Prey, saying:

..trying to continue to combine a sometimes very composed, sometimes very whimsical, but then also sometimes docu style, like really, really maintaining the combination of those things. Prey had a little bit of that because it did have, there was still an adventure movie quality to it. This movie is way more adventure-focused. But the fun of the buddy relationship really does demand to be some whimsy. For me, it never supersedes the really grounded vibe to everything.

Trachtenberg also talked about Gillis’ involvement in the film and his experience with the franchise, helping the movie still stay true to both the Predator and Alien franchises. He didn’t ever want the film to feel “too Star Wars-y” or “too Star Trek.” He pointed out that many of the shapes that compose Star Wars are much more square, whereas Predator has a more rounded approach in its visual language. He compared Dek to the classic character of Conan the Barbarian, saying:

Another thing I would say is for his behavior and giving him more personality, but it’s still feeling predatory. For whatever reason, there’s always been a link to me with Conan. Tor what, thinking of what their culture is like, but also the way he behaves, is he’s a very terse character, a few words, but they say a lot. And there’s something in the fabric of that world, that’s fantasy, but brutal, pirate-y also, , that’s different than Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, or Avatar, pick any sci-fi thing. There’s something in the Conan vibe that feels right for when we’re digging into the culture.

The Synths Have Been on Genna for a Long Time

Image via 20th Century Studios

One of the most decorated members of the set that we were able to talk to was Academy Award-winning costume designer Nglia Dickson, who quickly noted that her work on the film was “the longest costume design period for the least number of costumes in my entire career.” When asked why that was, Dickson noted that Trachtenberg is a very visual filmmaker, quipping, “We were constantly searching, and the two of us were disappearing off down many a road. So there’s a whole bunch of Predator-style movies that he’s now got filed in his brain, and one in particular that we both loved, that may one day come down the pipeline.” This led to a satisfying experience for Dickson, who also claims to be a visual person, noting “when I’ve got the drawing right, the costume’s gonna be right.”

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“After Prey came out, and I started thinking about sequel stuff, there were three ideas that I had.”

When it came to the synths in the film, Dickson noted that the team always wanted them to have “this absolute uniformity to them, but also something about them that makes them so futuristic or practical.” Initially, the team started out with the basic uniforms, which were made to look just futuristic enough, before adding on ponchos and hats, and making them look more grungey.

It was always the sense that the Synths had been on that planet for quite some time. And so everything starts to become indented. You might leave home with a certain uniform and all that is starting to break apart. Even for something like a Synth. That was sort of the road that we were tracking in our heads. That they were becoming much more individualized and a bit more of a motely crew.”

When it came to designing the Predators’ outfits, Dickson called their style “timeless,” and the fact that the film is set so far into the future didn’t really affect how they styled their armor. Especially since Dek is viewed as “not Predator” material by his father, especially compared to his brother Quay.

There’s a Hierarchy to the Weapons That the Predators Use

Image via 20th Century Studios

“Badass” and Predator are pretty much synonymous with one another. And every Yautja warrior needs an arsenal of effective weapons to be a true Predator. We mentioned earlier that many of Dek’s weapons in the movie will be makeshift creatures and materials he finds on Genna. Matt Cornelias, the prop master on set, presented each of the weapons to us, calling them “complex weapons” that are still “all real and practical,” and “awesome killing machines.” There’s a hierarchy of the kinds of weapons that the Predators use in the film, especially between Dek, his older brother Quay, and their father. He mentioned that while Dek and Quay’s father is a bit more restrained and is more of a physical fighter, Dek and Quay are “pretty keen to get their hands on everything.”

As for the sword that you see me holding above, there are different versions that are used on set, as Cornelias elaborated. Most of the props in the movie are practical, but there are additional weapons made for the VFX team to work with them. “The one for the VFX team and Jeff, the DIP, have got the ability to have a blade that sort of adds along to the face and things like that. So they get an interactive prop. So although they don’t look like this in a natural moving, it’s really what we use a lot on set, and these are all stunt blades, so they’re flexible and safe.”

Dek and Thia’s Bond Isn’t Instant, But They Need Each Other To Survive

Image via 20th Century Studios

If you are a hardcore fan of the Predator franchise, you probably already know the story about how action star and legendary martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally going to play the killing machine in the 1987 film. Alec Gillis relayed the story to us during our conversation, “Jean-Claude Van Damme was playing the monster, and I think he had issues with covering up his handsome face and not being able to do his kickboxing flips and all that kind of stuff. And, good point, because he was destined for bigger things than that. So they shut production down.” With Predator: Badlands, the team needed someone who could play their hero, Predator, and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi was the man for the job.

We were able to talk with Schuster-Koloamatang, while he was in full costume as the character, including those contact lenses mentioned earlier. So if you are wondering, yes, he did respond to every question while looking each journalist in the eye with his fake primal eyes. Because of how much of the production was shrouded in secrecy, Schuster-Koloamatang didn’t even know he was auditioning for a Predator movie.

I didn’t know. When they first sent it through, they just sent like a page of dialogue and they were like,’ just do one in your normal accent and then one in like a made of language.’ And they were like ‘free to interpretation,’ I was like, ‘oh, of course it is.’ I was actually just went there just like spoke gibberish and then you had to send another tape of like movement and that was also left up to interpretation, so you could literally do anything. And then yeah, it paid off .

For his movement audition, Schuster-Koiloamatang was already training for a Tongan dance he had coming up, so he combined the dancing with some fight moves, all in a 45-second video.

Schuster-Koloamatang called playing Dek “adventurous for sure,” before going on to describe the uniqueness of his role, “and I think it’s quite cool that we get to follow a Predator, someone from Yautja, and not just have them as the antagonist just coming in and causing havoc.” When describing having to have Fanning’s character on his back for much of the shoot, Schuster-Koloamatang joked and said, “Some of her weight was taken from like wires and stuff. But yeah, I was carrying a bit of it, and my shoulders are a bit bigger than they were before I started.”

The partnership between Dek and Thia isn’t immediate either. Schuster-Koiloamatang told us, “That’s the whole thing with Yautja is they hunt alone, that’s one of their mottos.” He described them as a mismatched pair who end up being perfect for each other. “She can’t even walk, so it’s like, his first reaction to her is just, ‘You are useless, I don’t even know what I’m gonna do with you.’ But she ends up convincing him to take her along the way and that she can be useful, and then through that whole journey of having like a tool to help you, you realize ‘oh yeah, working in a team, got me a lot further than just hunting alone.'”

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Schuster-Koiloamatang also mentioned that the characters in the film do not speak English; Dek speaks Yautja, which meant he had to learn the language to prep for the role. Because Thia is a Synth, she immediately understands what Dek is saying and can communicate with him.

So having those scenes throughout the movie, you see the bond come together. They’re able to communicate what’s on their minds. He’s just like, ‘I don’t even like you,’ and Thia is like, ‘No we can do this, we can do this.’ She’s the real optimistic voice in his head that he needs. It’s very just ‘kill, kill, kill,’ that’s his culture, and she brings out that ‘you don’t have to kill everything. You know, life is a bit more beautiful. Life is a bit more purposeful if you just relax.’

You’ve probably heard the stories of actors such as Colin Farrell and Jennifer Lawrence spending 3–7 hours to become the Penguin and Mystique. With Schuster-Koiloamatang, the process thankfully wasn’t that long to fully become Dek, but it certainly wasn’t easy either. He mentioned that it took 45 minutes in the morning to put everything on, “So like the arms are put on separately and then the legs are put on, and it’s all kind of zipped up and right to cast. It’s just a lot of layers. I got like skins underneath everything just to absorb the sweat.” Thankfully, it didn’t take nearly as long to take everything off. “Oh, it’s quick, bro. It flies off at the end of the day, it’s like 10 minutes or so.”

‘Predator: Badlands’ Will Please Old Fans, While Also Bringing in New Ones

Image via 20th Century Studios

While Predator: Killer of Killers did give us a taste of what the culture is like on Yautja Prime, don’t expect much more in Predator: Badlands. Trachtenberg noted this while we talked with him, saying,

The big thing for this movie is to not fall into the sequel trap of the authors of the movie feeling overly interested in the lore more so than the story. The story is more interesting than lore is, and a lot of times sequels become really fascinated with the world that they’re building. So much so that they think you’re interested in how the senate of that world might work or the tax incentives or whatever. So this is really just a sliver. It’s really just a little bit more of the culture, but still super focused on the character and Dek’s story.

The fact that Predator: Badlands is more of a stand-alone story felt like a major theme throughout the day. It’s the kind of movie that could even bring in newcomers to the franchise. Trachtenberg noted that he wanted to make a Predator movie that even his mom could enjoy, while still making it feel fully like it fits in the franchise.

I got a sudden a flutter, a memory from my childhood of being really excited to show my mom Terminator 2. And the realization for me was like, oh, I didn’t think she should see Terminator, but I did think she should see Terminator 2. Terminator 2 is thematically oriented, about parents and children, and also badass and awesome. That was how to get my mom to watch cool action when it was like, oh, it’s got another engine, so it’s really story focused. Prey is filled with beheadings… So I really felt heartened that there is a way to continue doing these movies that can have a warmth at the center, but also still be incredibly ferocious, and action oriented and all the things that you’d expect from the Predator franchise, but still be beautiful. The level of gore in this movie is different. It’s versus things that we’ve never gotten to see the Predator do, other than maybe in some comics and games. We’ve never really seen the Predator hunt on an alien planet. And you never see him hunt non-humans on an alien planet.

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Earlier during the set visit, Rosenblatt also mentioned how the movie would feature no human characters, and since Synths bleed white, and Predators bleed green, it begs the question if the movie would even warrant an R-rating from the MPA. Especially since the rating system has infamously only had a problem with red blood. Rosenblatt responded by saying, “We’ll see where it ends up. Our hope for it is that it can be a PG-13 that feels like an R. That’s kind of our hope. And really, what that’s about is just being able to broaden out the audience for a movie like this.”

Will ‘Predator: Badlands’ Lead To a New Alien vs. Predator Movie?

Image via 20th Century Studios

Obviously, one of the biggest reveals from the first trailer for Predator: Badlands is the fact that this film is merging the Alien and Predator universes together once more. It was something that we were told early on into the set visit, and something that felt far more exciting now than it would have ten years ago. While both franchises have had their rough patches, and the previous Alien vs Predator movies were disappointing, to put it lightly, both feel like they have picked up a lot of momentum since. With Alien, it was Alien: Romulus and Alien: Earth, and with Predator, it’s obviously Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and from the looks of it, Predator: Badlands. Now is the time to bring these franchises together? So is this all leading to a new AvP movie, one that’s actually, you know, good? From what Rosenblatt said, it’s a maybe, but not a sure thing.

I will say something just because I think it’s easier to spell it. It’s not an Alien vs. Predator movie. There won’t be a Xenomorph. I can just say that, just in case anyone’s conjuring up feelings. Hopefully one day, you know. But this is sort of us dipping our toe. The worlds coexist and it’s just kind of like bringing them together.

Later in the day, when asked how he approached bringing in Alien elements into a Predator movie, Trachtenberg said his first instinct was that he didn’t want to include anything that would have “taken the thunder away” from having a Predator protagonist. While Trachtenberg noted that the studio seemed to want a human sidekick, he wanted to find a ‘cheat.’ That came in the form of having a robot, but then something else came into his mind, “and then I was like, wait a minute. There’s a way in which it can be a… And then that just sort of blossomed into other grander ideas.”

Release Date

November 7, 2025

Director

Dan Trachtenberg

Writers

Dan Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison, John Thomas, Jim Thomas

Franchise(s)

Predator