The Predator franchise is an unstoppable beast — pun fully intended. Nearly four decades and five main-series entries in, the franchise is riling up nearly as much hype as it did when the first few films were released, as fans brace themselves for the arrival of Predator: Badlands.
The incoming 2025 film is once again going the standalone direction, a decision that proved potentially franchise-saving back in 2022. The release of Prey, the fifth Predator film, dazzled both longtime fans and incoming viewers, and gave the longstanding franchise a much-needed injection of vitality. Its unique and thrilling premise threw the typical approach for a loop, and it looks like 20th Century Studios is angling for a similar approach with Badlands.
Early teasers for the film, which isn’t expected to hit theaters until Nov. 7, 2025, throw a major loop into the expected approach to marketing a Predator film, and instantly sparked conversations about another game-changer. Prey shifted the script on the typically macho franchise, which frequently relied on massive explosions and heavily muscled men shooting guns.
What we got with Prey was something new — a clever and capable young Comanche hunter, armed with nothing but primitive weaponry, faced against a terrifyingly advanced alien enemy. Its thrilling, its fresh, and its utterly captivating from start to finish.
Something similar may be coming our way with Badlands, but not in a repetitive way. The fresh film’s meager logline doesn’t sound like a Predator film at all, actually, with a premise touting “the bond between two sisters whose relationship is put to the test as they go on different paths.”
I’m sorry? Is this a drama, or a movie about extra-terrestrial Kraven the Hunter? I did not sign up for two sisters bickering their way across two hours of runtime when I became an action movie stan, but somehow I don’t think that’s what director Dan Trachtenberg has in store for us. He directed Prey, after all, and he’s well aware of the impact it had on the franchise.
Which leads me to believe that the Elle Fanning-led flick is set to really dazzle audiences with yet another fresh approach to a traditionally-rote premise. Another description for the film adds that our bickering sisters “discover their horrifying past” while wandering a “wasteland.” Now that sounds a bit more at home in our favorite gun-toting, knife-wielding franchise.
Overall, the plot for Badlands is being kept carefully under wraps, and — to my eyes — that’s great news. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original Predator movies. I even like The Predator, in that quiet part of my soul that loves anything with enough cool action moments, no matter how rotten the packaging. I can quote John McClane, Dutch, and Sarah Connor without blinking, and I can fully recreate moments from my favorite action flicks — but this genre is overstuffed with boring, samesy crap. I love that crap, but it is crap nonetheless.
Prey is not the oversaturated nonsense I’ve come to love in this genre. Its action-packed, absolutely, and it contains all the essential elements of a Predator movie, but its also thrilling and new. That seems to be exactly what’s in store with Badlands, and that means November 2025 can’t come fast enough.