Elle Fanning Reveals The Predator: Badlands Role That Rattled Her Most: Villainous Synth Tessa, Not Big-Personality Droid Thia

Elle Fanning is doing double duty in Predator: Badlands, and not in the usual wig-and-accent way. She plays two android sisters on opposite sides of the same nightmare hunt: one chipper guide, one company hammer. It is a clever way to give an actor both the fun part and the problem part, sometimes in the same scene.

The setup

Dan Trachtenberg, who gave us Prey, is back behind the camera for a story centered on Dek, a Yautja runt played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Dek heads to Genna, a planet nicknamed the Death Planet, to bring down the Kalisk — the monster other monsters whisper about. Plenty of Yautja have died trying to claim it as a trophy, which only makes Dek more stubborn. He is out to prove he belongs and to settle a family score: his brother Kwei was executed by their clan-leader father after Kwei stepped in to save Dek from the same fate.

On Genna, Dek collides with Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth who has already met the Kalisk and did not walk away — literally. She lost her legs the first time around. Dek is not charmed by her perkiness, but he does realize fast that she knows the planet inside and out: the plants, the animals, and the things that want to eat both. She ends up joining the hunt as his self-described 'tool.'

The sisters, same face, very different wiring

Thia’s mirror image is Tessa, also played by Fanning. Where Thia is bright and curious, Tessa is purposeful and strictly by-the-book — the book being Weyland-Yutani’s. She is not out to destroy the Kalisk, she is out to bring it home for the company. That puts her directly in Dek’s path, and in her sister’s, too. If you are imagining a lively family reunion on a lethal planet, you are not wrong.

• Dek: a Yautja runt with something to prove (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi)
• Genna: aka the Death Planet, crawling with flora, fauna, and things worse than both
• Kalisk: the big prize every hunter fears
• Thia: Weyland-Yutani synth, previously mauled by the Kalisk, optimistic, legless but unflappable (Elle Fanning)
• Tessa: her twin, colder and corporate-loyal, aiming to capture the creature for Weyland-Yutani (Elle Fanning)
• Backstory spark: Dek’s brother Kwei is executed by their clan-leader father after saving Dek

Fanning on toggling between them

Fanning says she lived mostly as Thia on set, with the occasional Tessa day sprinkled in — which she admits made her a little nervous. Thia made sense to her. Tessa took more work. Thia is open. Tessa is guarded, methodical, and, given her history, more traditionally robotic. The production calls them sisters, but Fanning is clear: different paths made them who they are, and that is the point.

'I had a soft spot for Tessa. I don’t think she’s just a straight villain... she’s working for the company and in her mind, she’s just trying to get the task done.'

That is the interesting wrinkle here: Tessa is not twirling a mustache. She is the person who follows the mission and sleeps fine at night because, from her angle, she did the job. Meanwhile, Thia is the one who makes herself useful, keeps spirits up, and gently steers the walking tank in the right direction.

Where it all lands

Predator: Badlands gives Fanning a rare split-screen challenge and uses it to juice the hunt. Dek’s revenge quest, the corporate angle, and the Kalisk towering over all of it make for a lean, mean setup — and the sister-versus-sister complication keeps adding pressure. It is a fun twist to watch the same actor play both the voice in your ear and the one trying to drag the monster back with a label on it.

Predator: Badlands is in theaters now.