Predator: Badlands Cast Says Dan Trachtenberg Added Heart to the Hunt — And Learned Yautja for Every Ad-Lib

Dan Trachtenberg has a simple rule for making a new Predator movie: ask what the franchise has not done yet and then go do that. With Predator: Badlands, he went all in on a wild swing - a sequel that does not center humans. Instead, the two leads are a Yautja outcast and a Weyland-Yutani android, and the whole thing leans funnier and more adventurous than you might expect, without losing the teeth.

Here is the curveball: the cast is tiny. Stars Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning spend most of the movie playing off each other, with only four other actors physically sharing scenes with them. Voice cameos do pop in - Alison Wright and Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer - but on set, it was basically the smallest big sci-fi production you can imagine.

Who is who

• Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek - a Yautja runt and clan outcast with something to prove
• Elle Fanning as Thia - a Weyland-Yutani synth who talks more than any Predator fan is ready for
• Ravi Narayan as Bud - creature sidekick, part of the core trio dynamic
• Voice cameos: Alison Wright, plus Matt and Ross Duffer

The setup: an outcast, a brother, and a brutal father

Badlands pushes the timeline further into the future than any Predator or Alien entry to date. We open on Dek, labeled the runt of the litter, throwing down with his brother Kwei over whether he deserves a place in their clan. That is almost a formality, because the real obstacle is their father - a legendary warrior who would apparently prefer Dek dead rather than fighting beside him.

Kwei owes Dek his life from a near-miss years ago, so he does the unthinkable: he helps his brother slip free of dad’s kill-or-be-killed grip and flee to the planet Genna. Dek sets a single, savage goal for himself there - take down a Kalisk, billed as the nastiest opponent in the galaxy, and come back with proof that he is the ultimate hunter. It is a clean premise with real stakes and a nice twist on how we usually meet Yautja on screen.

Yes, the Predator talks. Sort of.

Traditionally, Yautja do not chat much. From Arnold’s 1987 original to this year’s animated hit Predator: Killer of Killers, the species has mostly been all menace, minimal dialogue. Trachtenberg knew Dek would need a voice this time - although Fanning’s upbeat android Thia still does most of the actual talking - so he brought in voice actor and conlang specialist Britton Watkins to build a proper Yautja language for the film. Nerdy detail, but it matters: line tweaks on set meant Schuster-Koloamatangi had to keep learning fresh Yautja phrasing on the fly.

Small cast, big scale

Fanning told GamesRadar+ that despite the massive builds and sweeping locations, the job felt surprisingly intimate because so few people were on camera and everyone was locked in on the same story. That vibe extended to how scenes were shaped. Trachtenberg encouraged ad-libs, was not precious about dialogue, and would pivot quickly if the actors found a better read. All of that improvising is fun - unless you are the one re-memorizing alien vocabulary mid-shoot.

'Dan cares just as much about the emotional scenes as the action. He balances both, and that is why he is so good in these worlds - he adds heart.'

Schuster-Koloamatangi echoed the experience from a boots-on-the-ground perspective: the days were long, the locations were a grind, but the smaller cast and crew bonded fast and pushed through together. It sounds more like the rhythm of a scrappy indie than a studio-sized Predator chapter, which fits Trachtenberg’s track record. Prey in 2022 won over the franchise diehards for similar reasons - clear perspective, lean storytelling, and a willingness to do something different.

One more bit of context that might make longtime fans raise an eyebrow: Trachtenberg’s mission statement here - do what has not been done - is not just a marketing line. A buddy dynamic between a Yautja exile and a corporate-built android from the Weyland-Yutani playbook, set later than any Alien or Predator feature to date, with a hand-built language and a practically pocket-sized cast - that is a lot of new for one movie. The surprise is how much of it plays as breezy and character-forward instead of grim and self-serious.

Predator: Badlands hits theaters in the US and UK on November 7.