They say that at Disney, no one can hear you scream. Since the House of Mouse purchased the rights to 20th Century Fox in 2019, we’ve seen the usually family-friendly studio push forward with some of Fox’s racier IPs. Following the success of 2022’s Prey, that served as an innovative Predator prequel, Fede Álvarez soared his way to the top of the box office with Alien: Romulus. Neither is staying dormant for long, with Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth bringing Xenomorphs to the small screen in 2025, a Romulus sequel already in the works, and Predator: Badlands trying something new with the Yautja.
The first trailer for Badlands offers the unique premise of a Predator protagonist, although we have occasionally seen the Skin Thieves working with humans instead of just hunting them for sport. Prey’s Dan Trachtenberg is back behind the camera for Badlands, which again is taking the Predator name in a different direction.
Alongside Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi playing the Predator outcast known as Dek, Elle Fanning has been cast as an android called Thia. Our first peek at Badlands has left us with plenty of questions, but thanks to one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, fans are asking whether Trachtenberg is secretly setting up another Alien vs Predator crossover.
The Long Road to Alien vs. Predator
The trailer is littered with Easter Eggs confirming that Predator: Badlands is set in the same world as the Alien movies. Notably, a scene where Thia is strung up includes her eyes rolling back and displaying the Weyland-Yutani logo like Andy (David Johnsson) did in Alien: Romulus. Elsewhere, you might be able to spot a Weyland-Yutani uniform and a wrecked Weyland-Yutani truck. With it, horror fans are psyched that we could be on the cusp of an AvP reboot. Considering the two Alien vs. Predator movies grossed an impressive $307.7 million on a combined budget of just $110 million, a renewed interest in the IPs could be a license to print money. Then again, neither AvP movie was a critical darling.
The first seeds of Alien vs. Predator were sown way back in an Elsewords-inspired comic book in 1989. It wasn’t long until a Xenomorph skull popped up in the Predator’s trophy cabinet in 1990’s Predator 2. Co-writer Jim Thomas referred to the concept of a crossover as a “great idea that will probably never happen,” but of course, it did. Screenwriter Peter Briggs pitched Fox a spec script in the early ‘90s, and although things fell into development hell, a tie-in video game for the unproduced movie was released on the Atari Jaguar in 1994. After completing the script for Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Paul W.S. Anderson started working on the script that was inspired by the idea that the Aztecs were helped by aliens.
Anderson delivered an arctic-set movie so as not to mess with the convoluted lore of both IPs. After all, a Predator running around New York City would surely be remembered in the annals of history by the time Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley was fighting Xenos in the far-flung future. Whereas the underrated Freddy vs. Jason was confined to a comic book series when it came to getting a sequel, AvP spun off into The Brothers Strause’s Alien vs. Predator: Requiem just three years after the original hit theaters in 2004. Franchise fans slammed the (literally) unwatchable movie, which goes down in history as one of the darkest movies ever, thanks to its poor lighting. It wasn’t just the threat of the Predalien that was extinguished by Requiem, as it killed the hopes of more crossovers dead.
That hasn’t stopped whispers of another go, like the end of Shane Black’s The Predator, teasing an AvP resurrection due to deleted alternate endings teasing both a return of Ripley, or an adult Rebecca "Newt" Jorden having traveled back in time as a ‘Predator killer’. Unfortunately, like Requiem failed to keep the franchises alive, plans for The Predator setting up two sequels were also canned during the Disney acquisition. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2024, 20th Century studio head Steve Asbell admitted there would ‘probably’ be another Alien vs. Predator movie. The idea of an Alien vs. Predator has even been addressed by original director Paul W.S. Anderson. Speaking to Forbes after the movie’s 20th anniversary, Anderson told whoever heads up the eventual reboot and referred to his own AvP experience as a career highlight: "Just have fun with it. I know I did. It was a real treat. It was like working with the two biggest movie stars in the world, but they both smelled of rubber."
Alongside Badlands, Álvarez’s upcoming Romulus sequel could be weaving things closer together thanks to reports from Jeff Sneider. Speaking to The Hot Mic podcast Sneider said he’s been "told that the script for Fede Álvarez’s follow-up to Alien: Romulus features a Predator." Bizarrely, Alien vs. Predator isn’t the only dormant horror favorite that Badlands is hinting at more of. Others have spotted what looks like a Harvester skull from 1996’s film Independence Day in a Yautja trophy cabinet. That particular franchise looked dead since 2016’s Independence Day: Resurgence, while others have speculated that the large humanoid skull could belong to an Engineer to tie back to the mythos of Ridley Scott’s unfinished Prometheus and Alien: Covenant arc. There’s also an ape skull, so could we do the impossible and get a Planet of the Predators movie to dip into Planet of the Apes' world? Disney has a massive ball pit to play in, but whatever happens, we just hope it can stick the landing and do these sci-fi staples justice.