Predator: Badlands has been a major hit for 20th Century Studios. The film has grossed $161 million so far (making it the highest installment in the series) and appears on course to hit the $200 million mark. The ninth chapter has also garnered critical acclaim, earning an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In it, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Yautja who has been exiled from his clan for being a runt, crash-lands on a hostile planet, forcing him to prove himself worthy of the hunt. To ensure survival, he teams up with Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged android from Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Together, they face off against several unforeseen threats.
From outstanding visual effects to amazing action sequences, there’s a lot to love about Badlands. Even better, the film expands on the Predator lore, giving audiences a better understanding of the vicious extraterrestrials and their behavior.
Here are the most notable new additions to the lore in Predator: Badlands.
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Predator Language and Grammar in the Yautja Codex
Apparently, the Predators don’t just unleash random sounds from their vocal cords. They have grammar and intonation. The Yautja Codex — an extensive language set and code of honor created for the fictional Yautja species — is first mentioned in Predator: Killer of Killers, but the linguistic part of it is explored in greater detail in Badlands. Director Dan Trachtenberg reportedly sought linguist Paul Frommer, the same person who wrote the Na’vi language for James Cameron’s Avatar films, to create the new Predator language. Unfortunately, his schedule was packed, so he recommended his mentee.
Speaking to comicbook.com, the filmmaker said:
“All the stuff that you’ve seen in other Predator movies is complete garbage. There’s no sense of it. People from the Internet have tried to make sense of it, but none of it was made with intention. So we decided to make it with intention and we completely developed the language, so everything they’re speaking has actual rules and structure and all that stuff. And written as well as verbal.”
Indeed, in earlier movies, Predator communication seems mostly animalistic, with growls and mimicry. All the written symbols on the screen are nothing but random designs, created to give the impression of a tribe. Badlands humanizes the Yautja by giving them a true language, making their world more credible, and creating room for more character moments. These are no longer just bizarre creatures. Thanks to the use of actual words, fans get to know how the Yautja think and perceive the world.
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Planet Genna
Genna is the main planet featured in Predator: Badlands. Surrounded by orbital debris, it is inhabited by some of the deadliest extraterrestrial lifeforms. Genna is known as the “Death Planet” because of its harsh environment. Its ecology is designed in such a way that all the lifeforms are aggressive and attempt to kill anything that lands on the world. This weaves beautifully into the movie’s plot.
The protagonist, Dek, crash-lands on the planet after his ship gets struck by the orbiting debris field. Once there, he encounters some of the hostile aliens. Dek not only needs to stay alive but also has to prove himself. And there’s no better place to showcase his skill than in a planet where everything is trying to kill him. Similarities can be seen between Game Preserve Planet from Predators (2010) and Genna. However, the newer location is more detailed, making it feel like a Star Wars planet.
Speaking to IGN, Trachtenberg singled out Conan the Barbarian as a major reference point when creating Genna for film, claiming “there’s something in the fabric of that world that’s fantasy but brutal, and pirate-y, that’s different than Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or Avatar.” Besides that, the wilderness of New Zealand was used to represent Genna when filming.
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Weyland-Yutani’s Knowledge of the Predators
Predator: Badlands confirms that the Weyland-Yutani corporation has known about the Predators for years. The company has several classified records of Yautja activity, though they don’t fully understand how the species operates. Aware that aliens are biologically superior and technologically advanced, they aim to study them more and use them for monetary and military benefits.
These new revelations raise discussions about scientific experiments and their consequences. Sometimes good things can come out of ambitious plans (Thia in this case), but there is also the likelihood of messing up. Additionally, it further cements Weyland-Yutani’s place among the most evil corporations in movie history. While there is no standout corporate villain, audiences get some form of excitement watching the big-budget efforts.
Beyond that, this reveal ties the Alien and Predator franchises more closely, confirming that W-Y’s objective has always been research and exploitation. The new info links back to Ridley Scott’s first Xenomorph movie, where Special Order 937 is given to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo, insisting on the survival of a sample specimen of the alien species, and stipulating that this task was top priority, even the safety and survival of the crew. Because of Special Order 937, Ash works against the rest of the ship’s crew, aiding the alien.
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Yautja Society Kills Off Its Weakest Members
The new film reveals that the Yautja don’t just value strength; they abhor weakness. This isn’t seen as a form of cruelty. It’s simply part of the culture. Dek is thus singled out for elimination because he is physically smaller, genetically inferior, and weak. Worse still, he is unable to pass the initiations.
The fresh info about Yautja culture explains why every Predator villain seen in the movies has been so strong and formidable. In a way, the cultural norm makes sense because hunting is central to Yautja existence. Weak members might not only botch missions, but also cause the rise of a subpar lineage.
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They’ve Hunted Dinosaurs and ID4 Aliens
Another major lore-expanding reveal in Predator: Badlands is that the Yautja have been hunting for billions of years, long before humans existed. Archeological finds show wounds (caused by energy weapons) on Velicoraptor-like bones — similar to Yautja plasma scarring. A holo-recording recovered from a Yautja mask also shows a young predator hunting a dinosaur, confirming contact.
Earlier franchise installments implied that the Yautja simply hated humans and saw them as the ideal prey, but Badlands confirms this isn’t the case. The Predators are interested in Earth as a whole, seeing it as a perfect training and hunting ground.
Even bigger is the disclosure that the Yautja have fought the ID4, aka, The Harvesters from the Independence Day franchise. The film never outrightly refers to them as “ID4s,” but the designs match, whether it’s the organic armor or the tendril-based neural control. This is all confirmed when Weyland-Yutani extracts a Predator black box with a recorded encounter showing a Yautja scouting party being ambushed by a squad of ID4 soldiers. One Yautja then kills a harvester soldier, removing its exosuit headplate, and taking it as a trophy. This suggests that the two franchises exist in the same universe, so fans should expect crossovers in the near future.
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Cloaking Tech Is Earned as a Rite of Passage
“They’ve got stealth technology that makes a B-2 bomber look like a fucking GoodYear blimp wrapped in neon,” says Det. Schaefer in the novel, Predator: Cold War. In Badlands, we learn that the Cloak (an advanced piece of Yautja technology that renders the user nearly invisible to the naked eye and many forms of electronic scanning) isn’t standard in all Yautja. It’s earned via a rite of passage, after a member proves they are strong and capable. This new lore addition is delivered through Dek’s detailed backstory and the Yautja recordings that the researchers analyzed.
When audiences first witnessed the Predator appearing and disappearing in Arnold Schwarzenneger’s movie, they immediately concluded that the creature and each of its kind was born that way. “What the hell are you?” This iconic question asked by Dutch was hard to answer then, but the answer is simpler now. Only the cool kids get to play with the toys. After all, a weak hunter wouldn’t know when to be invisible and when not to.
According to Predator 2’s DVD audio commentary, the design of the Predator’s Cloak was developed from a dream that screenwriter Jim Thomas had about an invisible man. Additionally, it has been reported that following a screening of Predator at the Pentagon, a general in charge of military procurement was so impressed by the tech that he started a research program aimed at developing a real-world equivalent. Who knows? It might just exist.
- Release Date
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November 5, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Producers
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Brent O’Connor, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek / Father
