Predator: Badlands Trailer Unleashes Android-Predator Team Up and Teases Major Alien Crossover

Android Meets Predator: The Unlikely Duo at the Heart of 'Predator: Badlands'

The ninth outing in the legendary Predator: Badlands franchise doesn’t just raise the stakes—it smashes the playbook. The freshly dropped trailer landed on April 23, 2025, and fans immediately zeroed in on its wild new pairing: Elle Fanning stepping into the sci-fi spotlight as Thia, a Weyland-Yutani android, and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as a young, rogue Predator. This isn't your average alien-hunter stalker flick; it’s got the unmistakable fingerprints of director Dan Trachtenberg, who shook things up with 2022’s Prey. He’s back at the helm, promising more fresh air for a franchise that could use a little oxygen—and maybe a little acid blood to boot.

The setup? On a bleak, wind-blasted planet in the far-off future, a Predator outcast is set loose on a hunt, but he’s got baggage. Clanless and haunted by failure, this Yautja gets entangled—literally—with Thia, an android trapped in a bizarre snare when they meet. The classic Predator meets something even deadlier: a reason to form an uneasy partnership. Both have something to prove, and both are built to survive against impossible odds.

The spark in the trailer that set the fan theories ablaze? Thia’s eyes flash the iconic Weyland-Yutani logo—a not-so-subtle wink to the Alien crossover that followers have been craving since the earliest Easter eggs. That single image ties Badlands into the DNA of both the Predator and Alien universes, and introduces the android element front and center. It's the first time the Weyland-Yutani name has made such a direct on-screen connection in the main Predator franchise, signaling that those two worlds might finally stop circling each other and collide.

Franchise Shake-Up and a Fresh Perspective

Trachtenberg already changed the Predator game once by putting Amber Midthunder’s Comanche warrior at the center of Prey. This time, the stakes and the setting have gone cosmic, and the dynamic between Fanning’s android and Schuster-Koloamatangi’s young Predator promises something the series hasn’t quite explored. The trailer shows them outgunned, outnumbered, and forced to hunt together through desolate landscapes and high-tech traps. There’s tension, suspicion, and just the faintest spark of trust as they track a deadly common enemy lurking somewhere in the badlands.

• Action: The footage is packed with sharp, kinetic set pieces—thunderous chases, flash-frozen wastelands, and nightmarish alien wildlife.
• Atmosphere: The isolated planet serves up a simmering pressure cooker, with shadows concealing dangers for both hunter and android.
• Android Revelation: The trailer doesn’t shy away from showing Thia’s mechanical nature, and the casual drop of the Weyland-Yutani name lands like a gauntlet thrown.
• Release Plan: Get ready—Badlands is aiming for a wide release in theaters and IMAX on November 7, 2025, and the anticipation is only heating up.

Production keeps plot details tight, but the trailer’s blend of high-voltage action and sci-fi intrigue has set off rampant speculation about the real goal here: building a bigger, crazier, connected universe. If the Alien crossover hints pay off, Predator: Badlands could be the entry that finally gives fans the long-anticipated cinematic mashup.