Dan Trachtenberg Teases Two Andy Serkis Classics Behind the Yautja’s Look in Predator: Badlands

I love when a franchise swings for the fences instead of reheating leftovers. Dan Trachtenberg’s new one, 'Predator: Badlands', does exactly that by putting a Predator front and center and asking us to care about him. Yes, really.

The hook: a Yautja you actually root for

The film makes Dek - a Yautja outcast - the lead, and he’s not just a snarling trophy hunter. The whole thing lives or dies on whether Dek reads as a real character, so Trachtenberg built the movie around an actor-driven performance instead of hiding behind a mask. Dimitrius Koloamatangi plays Dek, and the team took cues from the gold standard of digital acting to pull it off: Andy Serkis’ Gollum and Caesar.

That’s not a casual name drop. Trachtenberg has been pretty blunt about the technical headache here: Yautja faces aren’t exactly built for nuance, and making them emote without turning them into rubbery cartoons is a tightrope walk.

"When you think about all the great CG performances that we’ve come to love, from Gollum to the Apes, those are humanoid faces."

You can see why they went that route. Big movies have been roasted lately for sloppy CG, but Dek looks and feels like a performer, not a render. Between the effects work and Koloamatangi’s dramatic beats, it lands in that Serkis zone the team was aiming for.

Trachtenberg keeps breaking the Predator playbook

'Badlands' doesn’t just tweak the formula from 'Prey' - it ditches the usual human POV and puts a Yautja in the driver’s seat. That’s a wild pivot for a series that’s historically treated the creatures as boogeymen more than protagonists. Trachtenberg also didn’t want to repeat what worked in 'Prey', so this one takes new risks rather than chasing the same vibe. If you’ve seen the early chatter, it worked out: reception has been strong.

There are humans around - Elle Fanning shows up as Thia - but the story’s emotional core belongs to Dek. The choice pays off, and it’s already tracking as another win for the franchise.

• Lead creature: Dek, a sympathetic Yautja outcast, performed by Dimitrius Koloamatangi
• Creative inspiration: Andy Serkis’ Gollum and Caesar as benchmarks for expressive CG acting
• Rating: PG-13 - the first PG-13 entry in this Predator movie series across its nine installments
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Scores so far: IMDb 7.6; Rotten Tomatoes 86% Tomatometer / 96% Audience
• Box office outlook: $25-30M domestic opening weekend projected (via Variety)
• Distributor: 20th Century Studios
• Status: Now playing in U.S. theaters

Why this pivot matters

Long-running IPs tend to calcify. Look at the 'Jurassic World' films - huge grosses, but the general vibe is more shrug than swoon. Since 'Prey', Trachtenberg has quietly turned 'Predator' into the rare legacy franchise that actually evolves. He’s now three-for-three on the brand: 'Prey', 'Predator: Killer of Killers' earlier this year, and now 'Badlands' - all critical bright spots that have rebuilt goodwill with fans.

The big swings are what keep these from feeling like reruns. A sympathetic Predator lead is a risky move on paper, but it’s exactly the kind of shake-up that gives a decades-old series fresh air. If this momentum holds, we might be in the middle of the most interesting run this IP has had since the very beginning.

Seen it yet? Drop your take on Dek and the new direction below.