Set in a distant future of both the Alien and Predator timelines, the new film Predator: Badlands doesn’t require a huge barrier to entry for casual fans of either franchise. Yes, this is the seventh Predator movie overall, or ninth if you count the two Alien vs. Predator movies. And, because Elle Fanning’s Thia is a Weyland-Yutani synthetic from the Alien franchise, you could squint and count this as the eighth Alien movie, or tenth if you count the aforementioned crossovers.
Either way, that feels like a lot of continuity to juggle. But, do you actually need to have seen and memorized all the Predator canon from the previous films? Here’s the answer.
No spoilers ahead for Predator: Badlands.
Predator: Badlands is the third Predator film directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who started his stewardship of the franchise with 2022’s historical film Prey. While you don’t need to watch anything ahead of time to enjoy Badlands, it may be helpful to watch both of Trachtenberg’s Predator movies: Prey and the anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers, which hit Hulu earlier this year. And the reason isn’t because of a ton of shared canon, but because the vibe that Trachtenberg introduced with Prey and Killer of Killers is very much in this movie. What is that vibe? Basically, the Predator movies aren’t just about the titular hunter picking off victims one by one, but instead, about surprising alliances.
Does Badlands directly connect to any Predator movies?
The short answer to this question is, not really. Thematically, the animated movie Killer of Killers is probably the closest to Badlands insofar as it features team-ups between characters who might otherwise be enemies. And, although that one might provide a little extra context, Badlands’ biggest strength is that knowing the lore of the Predator movies isn’t necessary to enjoy the movie. If anything, Trachtenberg’s new foundation for the Predator franchise starts here, with this movie. If Badlands succeeds at the box office, this might be the movie that becomes homework for future installments, rather than installments from the series that started in 1987.
Then again, the Predator franchise has been a desperate collection of movies from the very first sequel. Predator 2 didn’t feature any of the cast from the original film, and other than the titular alien hunter, carried little continuity forward. Predators and The Predator have almost nothing in common with each other, making the current era of Trachtenberg-helmed movies the most cohesive version of the franchise so far.
And yet, Trachtenberg seems to know that the thing that makes Predator movies work is to tell a good, self-contained yarn, and leave the meticulous dot-connecting to the other franchises.
