If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Predator: Badlands' team-up with Elle Fanning and a Yautja retreads Alien vs. Predator's ending

Predator: Badlands' team-up with Elle Fanning and a Yautja retreads Alien vs. Predator's ending

A still from Alien vs. Predator
Image credit: 20th Century Studios

Some of us are cursed with knowledge about things we wish we didn't know. Like a modern Victor Frankenstein, the man who invented Labradoodles regrets ever having unleashed his creation onto the world. And while I certainly can't live up to that level of cursed knowledge, I unfortunately suffer from remembering too many details from the worst Alien movies ever made. Seriously, I wish I could run bleach over the part of my brain that remembers all of Alien: Resurrection. 

But anyways, we're talking about Predator: Badlands here. At CinemaCon 2025, attendees were treated to a sneak peek of footage from the film. As TheWrap reports, that footage includes Elle Fanning teaming up with a Predator presumably to waste other aliens who are much worse than that specific Predator. You may have even gasped in shock while reading that last sentence, and I wouldn't blame you! The Yautja are the creatures who killed Carl Weathers's character in the first movie - an act that I think automatically makes them an enemy of humanity for the foreseeable future. Who wants to hang near them?

Well, this storyline isn't exactly new to the Predator movies. If you remember back to 2004's Alien vs. Predator, a movie that looks infinitely older than it actually is, Sanaa Lathan's Lex teams up with an agreeable Yautja called Scar to fight off the film's real baddies: the xenomorphs from Alien. This Predator truly goes above and beyond and wipes xenomorph blood across his human companion's cheek, in an unexpectedly tender moment in the film. They may be Predators, and they may also be participating in settler colonialism (see: Prey), but hey, I guess they can have a heart too. 

Regardless, it's worth mentioning that Badlands is taking place in the future - unexplored territory for the Predator franchise. I guess there just aren't enough terrible people from human history to warrant a Predator teaming up with a human to take them out. 


Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

About CinemaCon 2025

Dates

-

Location

Las Vegas
United States

Visit the event page
×
Jules Chin Greene

Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, Multiverse of Color, and Screen Rant.

Comments

Want to join the discussion? Please activate your account first.
Visit Reedpop ID if you need to resend the confirmation email.

View Comments (0)

Find out how we conduct our review by reading our review policy