Predator Badlands will be a breath of fresh air for the other movie timeline, but when will it happen?

Dan Trachtenberg, the director already applauded for Preydecided to send the saga Predator in the distant future with Predator : Badlands. A choice not only aesthetic, but strategic: avoiding the headache of timelines shared between Alien et Predator. In short, you no longer need a chronological table to understand what is happening.

A distant future for a complicated past

Trachtenberg told IGN that he intentionally located Predator : Badlands “well into the future” in order to escape interference with other productions of the universe Alien. “When we were filming, Romulus hadn’t been released yet, and Alien : Earth was in development. We didn’t yet know where all this was going to lead. So we preferred to place our film very far back in timeso that everything that happened before remains behind us”, he explained.

An elegant way of saying: we stop the absurd calculations between Prometheus, Alien vs. Predator and company. The future becomes a neutral groundfreed from the constraints and inconsistencies that often plague franchises too linked to their past.

A deadly planet and an unexpected alliance

The story of Predator : Badlands takes place on a isolated and hostile planet. At the center of the story, a young Predator rejected by his own people, who will meet a human person embodied by Elle Fanning. An unlikely alliance, but one that carries emotion and tension. This duo promises to explore a more intimate facet of the mythical creature: that of a being on the margins, forced to rethink his place in a merciless universe.

Trachtenberg, who loves the stories of survival and loneliness (10 Cloverfield Lane), finds here familiar territory: locking its characters in a stifling setting and seeing how they cope. Except that this time, the setting is no longer a cellar or a house, but a whole planet ready to kill them.

No “homework” before the session

The director also clarified that he wanted to spare the public the chore of “catch up”previous films.”With all the series and films connected to these franchises, we wanted that Predator : Badlands either an independent experience. No need to have seen anything before.” A sentence that should reassure those who have picked up somewhere between Predators (2010) et The Predator (2018).

It’s also an implicit admission: even the creators are fed up with these convoluted timelines where each new opus must apologize for existing. By placing Badlands in an autonomous future, Trachtenberg offers a welcome breathvirgin territory for reinventing mythology without getting lost in references.

A wind of renewal in the franchise

Prey had already proven that we could dust off Predator without betraying its DNA. This new film continues this logic, but at the opposite end of the temporal spectrum: after the past, the future. A bold move which could well reposition the saga in a freer, more emotional direction, less restricted by nostalgia.

And then it must be said: see a young marginal predatorlost in a world that rejects him, it’s a strangely touching idea. Behind the violence and technology, there is perhaps a real story of redemption. Ironic, for a species that has been stalking humans for centuries.

Only one date to remember

Trachtenberg sums up the spirit of the project well: no need for guides, timelines or intensive rewatches. The only useful marker is the release date. Predator : Badlands will hit theaters on November 7. And this time, no time trap or forced crossover: just a Predator, a hostile planet et the promise of a new beginning for a franchise that really needed it.