Despite the big reveal in trailers that Dan Trachtenberg‘s “Predator: Badlands” would be a huge crossover into the “Alien” franchise via the evil corpration Weyland-Yuanti (first time a solo movie has added the company to the franchise lore) and the android Thia (built by them), played by Elle Fanning, the director has confirmed what we long suspected: the link-up doesn’t mean Xenomorphs will be showing up.
During a recently published interview with Empire Magazine, Trachtenberg went out of his way to clarify that while there is an organic reason for Weyland-Yutani’s involvement, allowing for that crossover between the sci-fi horror franchises, the Xenomorphs aren’t part of that plan. Which makes complete sense given this has been marketed as a solo “Predator” installment, not an “AVP” reboot.
“There’s no Xenomorph in this movie,” he confirms of Badlands. “But to me, that makes it more exciting. We’re not involving [the Alien franchise] just to smush the action figures together. There are great, organic story reasons for Weyland-Yutani to be in this film.”
Could Weyland-Yutani and the Colonial Marines (a version of them on the off-world colony Genna seem to be in the trailers) be trying to get their mitts on the Yautja technology? That might be where this is heading, or simply one of the first contact moments as humans are branching out to colonize alien worlds as the expansion mission continues.
We also have Fanning speaking about her brave synth character in the pic that teams up with the young predator that is overwhelmed on the deady planet, “Thia has been on Genna a while, seeing things she wouldn’t normally see…She’s absorbing all this new information, and she’s broken too, so she’s become very different from the other synths.”
That idea of crossover is likely being further fueled by the impressive critical and audience reaction to “Alien: Earth,” adding to the lore itself, focusing on compelling hybrid androids, which is expected to get a second season greenlight soon (creator/showrunner Noah Hawley has teased multiple seasons are possible if FX/Hulu want them, so an announcement could be around the corner).
“Predator: Badlands” hits theaters on November 7 and we can’t wait to see where that adventure is heading, alongside if the movie is ultimately setting up alongside the “Alien: Romulus” sequel (a director has yet to be named, officially) is planting seeds for a more accurate and better planned-out version of “Aliens Vs. Predator” (the two bungled contempary-set Earthbound movies had very little resemblece to the source material from the video games and comic books) down the line.
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