Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Predator: Badlands.
The word is out: Predator: Badlands is spectacular. Not long ago, the franchise was at death’s door after the worst sequel yet in The Predator; however, Dan Trachtenberg has worked multiple miracles with the franchise, directing three incredible back-to-back installments in Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and now, Predator: Badlands. But where should the franchise go next? Well, with the recent success of Alien: Earth, the answer is fairly obvious: now that Trachtenberg has expanded the grander Predator universe, it’s time for a live-action Predator television series.
A New ‘Predator’ TV Show Should Be an Original Concept
What’s so striking about Predator: Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands is how the films add rich layers to the Predator species in ways never attempted on-screen before — “Yautja” has now been adopted as the official species name. Previously, the Yautja existed in the expanded universe material for the Predator franchise going back to the mid-1990s with the Alien vs. Predator: Prey novelization of the classic Dark Horse comic miniseries. Viewers might have noticed that the pre-title text crawls in Killer of Killers and Badlands quote the “Yautja Codex,” a written honor code that Yautja warriors live by and uphold. The recent entries establish that the Yautja have a unique culture devoted to their hunts, which they consider a sacred honor for their species. A prospective television series should further expand what Trachtenberg touches on with his films by both fleshing out the Yautja Codex and using it as the foundation of further stories.
A Predator television series also has the perfect opportunity to further explore Yautja culture, society, and hierarchy. Based on Badlands, it seems as though the Yautja are very tribalistic and broken up into clans — and based on how Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is treated by his own father, the clan chief, as well as the clan at large, the Yautja clearly have a “survival of the fittest” mentality. Dek is viewed as inferior because he’s smaller and weaker, the proverbial runt of the litter. A Predator television show would have more opportunities to explore those ideas, as well as more of the Predators’ home planet, Yautja Prime, including its cities, towns, and general population.
A ‘Predator’ Television Show Needs To Finally Showcase Female Yautja
Predator: Badlands ended on a rather huge cliffhanger by teasing the reveal of Dek’s mother. Dek has just killed his father, earning revenge for the death of his older brother, Kwei (Mike Homik), at the beginning of the movie. It’s unclear how Dek’s mother is going to react to the carnage, but the manner in which Dek brandishes his blade as her ship arrives suggests it will be an angry and tense familial conversation. Although female Predators, or Yautja, have been depicted before in expanded franchise media, like books or comics, they’ve never appeared in a motion picture before.
Badlands officially establishes that the Predators do have genders, and since there are fathers, brothers, sons, and now mothers and sisters, that must mean there is some type of breeding or reproduction among their species. Since Dek’s father was the chief, does his wife or spouse have similar rule over the clan? Do the female Yautja also make formidable hunters? It would be great for a Predator television show to finally put the spotlight on Yautja females, since they seem to be implied to be just as dangerous as their male counterparts.
While Trachtenberg and co-writer Patrick Aison clearly have some thoughts about these ideas, a television series should take them further. Considering how badly Dek is treated and how the Yautja perceive smaller stature as weakness, it’s possible that female Yautja do not receive equal treatment or would be subjected to a patriarchal society — unless females are actually even deadlier and more aggressive than the males. If we can assume all the Yautja depicted in every live-action Predator installment released since the original 1987 movie are males, this implies female hunters are exceptionally rare. However, that’s something that a television series could easily clarify or change by possibly introducing the first female Predator hunters and how they fight in battle.
A ‘Predator’ Television Series Can Hint at Future Crossovers
Now, there’s the obvious elephant in the room of a new Alien vs. Predator crossover. Predator: Badlands does feature an appearance by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the longtime overarching antagonist of the Alien film series and, more recently, the Alien: Earth television series. A hypothetical Predator television series doesn’t necessarily need a full-on Alien crossover, but a series should offer some clarity on the species’ relationship, such as how the Yautja first came into contact with the Xenomorphs. It would be a chance to potentially retcon or revise what came up in the incredibly flawed live-action Alien vs. Predator movies and finally put the franchise back on a more coherent narrative footing. Additionally, a potential series should reveal how the Yautja developed and became capable of interstellar travel. Prey and Killer of Killers depict how the Yautja have been visiting Earth for centuries, but how did the Yautja obtain and develop such highly advanced technology? Imagine a Yautja dealing with a T. Ocellus, the show-stealer of Alien: Earth. It would be a recipe for chaotic fun.
Whatever happens next for the Predator franchise, be it a television series, a new animated anthology movie like Killer of Killers, or a sequel to Badlands, hopefully, Trachtenberg is involved. After decades of mediocre misfires, the franchise is finally in the hands of a visionary creator who respects the classic movies but is also breaking new ground, bringing fresh ideas to a franchise that badly needed them. If a Predator television series happens, Trachtenberg should be at the helm, or serve as a creative architect to some degree, because he’s finally restored the franchise to its former greatness.
- Release Date
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November 5, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Dan Trachtenberg
- Writers
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Dan Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison, John Thomas, Jim Thomas
- Producers
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Brent O’Connor, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
- Franchise(s)
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Predator
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek / Father
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