Predator: Badlands is the ninth film in the Predator franchise, which has had seven main films plus two crossovers with the Alien series. That would be a lot of extraterrestrial carnage to get through if you were concerned about being fully caught up before watching the new film from Dan Trachtenberg. At the very least, you’ll probably want to know when Predator: Badlands takes place within this centuries-sprawling Predator/Alien timeline.
Luckily, Trachentberg is making it as easy as possible for fans to enjoy Predator: Badlands. No previous knowledge of the franchise is required to understand the film beyond the fact that Predators (or Yautja as they’re referred to in Badlands, a term established in Steve Perry’s 1994 novel Alien vs. Predator Prey) like hunting things using a wide variety of weapons and a cloaking device. If you’re familiar with the Alien franchise, you’ll have a bit more background on the nefarious Weyland-Yutani corporation and their Synthetic human agents. But the film does a good job of making it clear that they are bad guys up to no good.
Part of what makes the film so accessible is that it’s set in the far future of the Alien/Predator shared universe. In an interview with IGN, Trachtenberg said that was a practical decision. He was working on Badlands before the release of both Fede Álvarez’s 2024 film Alien: Romulus and Noah Hawley’s 2025 FX series Alien: Earth and didn’t know what was going to happen in either, so couldn’t make the events of Badlands directly link to their continuities. The director also didn’t connect Badlands to his Hulu originals Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers.
“We’re cognizant of how, in this day and age, with all the media that we have, some of it can feel like homework,” he said, “and you kind of have to like remind yourself of where in a timeline does this sit between this movie and that movie and I really did not want that to be the case with Badlands.”
In other words, Trachtenberg didn’t want Predator: Badlands to feel like so many other modern blockbusters that only make sense if you’re watched the movies and shows leading up to it (looking at you Marvel).
The solution was simple: “So we decided to set ourselves well into the future. So all the stuff that has happened would have happened before our movie.”
Predator: Badlands premieres in theaters on Nov. 7.
