How Predator: Badlands Sets Up The Next Sequel In Dan Trachtenberg's New Universe

This article contains spoilers for "Predator: Badlands."

The "Predator" franchise is the most exciting film series currently running, and that's because it's almost completely unpredictable. Unlike the majority of other ongoing franchises, a set source material that future "Predator" films are expected to adapt to the screen is nonexistent. In other words, "Predator" is a far more old-school film franchise, with each new sequel coming up with new characters and stories to tell. What's more, where other series have floundered in treading familiar ground one too many times (one hopes the upcoming "Scream 7" isn't an example of this), the last few "Predator" films have found entirely new avenues of storytelling. Director and co-writer Dan Trachtenberg has essentially become the series' guru, setting up a new universe between "Prey," "Killer of Killers," and now "Predator: Badlands."

Thanks to Trachtenberg's innovative approaches to each new "Predator" film, the future of the franchise is hard to predict. That said, the films do seem to promise a few potential directions. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the finale of "Badlands," which sees the new "Wolf" clan comprised of the Yautja, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), the Weyland-Yutani synthetic, Thia (Elle Fanning), and the adolescent Kalisk, Bud, facing the apparent wrath of Dek's unseen and unnamed Mother after Dek vanquishes his Father (Reuben De Jong, voiced by Schuster-Koloamatangi). With this ending acting as a de facto mid-credits scene, it seems to promise that the adventures of the Wolf clan are far from over, and that a sequel to "Badlands" might pick up from this exact moment. Yet is a direct "Badlands" sequel the next step for Trachtenberg and the "Predator" series? Given the other recent films in the franchise, we may be in for a crossover event movie, one that may be "Predator" centric.

In any other franchise, the ending of "Badlands" would be seen as a sure sign of an impending sequel, as Dek and his friends realize the fight is far from over. However, we've seen almost exactly this same type of cliffhanger ending in the "Predator" franchise before, not once but several times over. To be fair, the finales of "Predator" and "Predator 2" were more or less conclusions, as the heroes of both movies end up vanquishing their Yautja hunters and can essentially go back to their lives. That all changed with 2010's "Predators," as that film left its human mercenary survivors Royce (Adrien Brody) and Isabelle (Alice Braga) stranded on a Yautja game preserve planet while more Predators and prey began to arrive.

Things only get more complex from there, as every subsequent sequel has left characters and events dangling. 2018's "The Predator" saw one rogue Predator leave behind a "Predator Killer" suit for Captain Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) to help with an impending Yauja invasion. The end credits for "Prey" indicate that the Yautja return to menace the Comanche tribe after the events of that film, and "Killer of Killers" reveals that Naru (Amber Midthunder) is eventually captured and frozen in cryosleep by the Predators, along with Dutch Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover). "Killer of Killers" also leaves the fates of Kenji (Louis Ozawa Changchien) and Torres (Rick Gonzalez) unresolved, as the Grendel King of the Yautja sends his people in pursuit of the humans. Given all of this, it's entirely possible that the cliffhanger for "Badlands" might go unresolved for years, if not forever.

"Predator" is a series rife with possibilities. Sure, any or all of these films could have a direct sequel made to them, but if the series were to go this route, it would likely be a mix-and-match type deal. Perhaps a "Badlands 2," but maybe a combined "Predators" and "The Predator" follow-up. The ideas established within "Killer of Killers" introduce yet another possibility, which is that the "Predator" films could crossover in a direct sequel to that movie, or perhaps it could happen in another animated entry (which would allow stars like Schwarzenegger and Glover to return in a less physically demanding capacity). Then there's the idea that the "Predator" universe might be building up to an event film a la Marvel's "The Avengers," with the protagonists of several prior sequels appearing in one massive film.

This could be the secret "third thing" that Trachtenberg was referring to when speaking to SFX Magazine recently, with the filmmaker hinting at some bold new pivot for the series. Yet, given the ubiquity of crossover films recently (even including animation, as in the "Spider-Verse" films), this probably isn't it. Nor is it likely to be what feels like the inevitable "Alien vs Predator" rematch, whatever form that film ends up taking. Instead, it seems far more likely that Trachtenberg has some other ingenious twist up his sleeve, and that this may mark the end of his tenure with the Yautja; after all, the filmmaker certainly hasn't set himself up as the Kevin Feige or the James Gunn of the PredatorVerse. However, what makes it hard to speculate about this is exactly what makes it all so exciting. The future of "Predator" looks bright, whether we see the Wolf clan again or not.