Predator: Badlands Gets a Surprisingly Tame MPA Rating, Fans Fear a Defanged Return
Predator: Badlands lands a surprising PG-13 ahead of its US release next month, disappointing fans who expected a bloodier return, even as director Dan Trachtenberg teams with stars Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning for the 20th Century Studios sequel.
Well, here is a curveball I did not have on my 2025 bingo card: the next Predator movie is aiming for PG-13. Yes, Predator. Cue the sighs, side-eyes, and a little cautious optimism.
About that rating
Multiple outlets are reporting that 20th Century Studios is going for a PG-13 on Predator: Badlands. If that sticks, it would be a first for the main Predator series. The only other time the brand went PG-13 was the 2004 crossover Alien vs. Predator. One important caveat: as of now, the rating is not posted on FilmRatings.com and 20th Century Studios has not published an official breakdown, so the rationale has not been disclosed yet. The expectation is still PG-13, but we are waiting on the MPA paperwork to catch up.
How the team says PG-13 will still hit hard
Producer Ben Rosenblatt told IGN they engineered Badlands to push PG-13 as far as it can go, partly because of a very specific creative choice: there are no humans in the movie. That means no red human blood and, if you know MPA rules, that opens the door for a different kind of mayhem.
'We set out to make a PG-13 movie that feels like an R so we can broaden the audience for a movie like this. We do not have any humans in the movie, which means no red human blood. Within those limits, we are going to go as hard as we possibly can and still do some awesomely gruesome stuff... just in colors other than red.'
It is a very inside-baseball way to get gnarly without tripping the ratings wire, but it tracks. Creature-on-creature violence and non-red blood can slide under PG-13 in ways human carnage cannot.
Fans are, predictably, split
- Some folks, like @Justanavrage, are worried a Predator movie without human blood and gore will not land, even if the idea of a Predator protagonist is intriguing.
- Others, including @FreddyInSpace, point out PG-13 does not automatically mean tame. If it is all alien-on-alien, the MPA historically allows a lot more.
- There is also PG-13 fatigue in the air. @PeterRabbit_4DX brought up how Die Hard and Terminator tried the softer rating and asked if Predator can survive the same pivot.
- And then there is the pragmatic take from @ODSTSpartan: Michael Bay's Transformers movies are PG-13 and still pretty brutal. The MPA can be weirdly inconsistent, and you can get away with a lot when you are not showing people die onscreen.
The movie itself
Predator: Badlands is directed by Dan Trachtenberg for 20th Century Studios and stars newcomer Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi alongside Elle Fanning. The setup: it is set in the future on a deadly remote planet and follows a young Predator outcast who teams up with Fanning's character, Thia, on a dangerous trek to find the ultimate adversary. Also worth underlining again: no humans in the movie.
Release date
Predator: Badlands is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters on November 7, 2025.