There are very few staples in the world of pop sci-fi that have had the lasting impact of the Predator franchise. While the series has seen its shares of ups and downs since 1987, in recent years, it’s seen a considerable upswing thanks to the terrific efforts of filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg. Starting with Prey, continuing with Predator: Killer of Killers, and now coming up on Predator: Badlands.

Trachtenberg’s work is not only giving this franchise a true second life, but also revitalizing it with a depth and a soul many felt wasn’t possible in a franchise that started primarily as a creature feature. So it was a no-brainer that he and 20th Century Studios would bring Badlands to the coveted Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic Con to honor the legacy of this tried and true franchise!

The thing I’m loving most about Trachtenberg’s approach to the franchise is that he’s always looking for something different to do. He’s not just coasting off the popularity of the franchise and what worked before it. He’s legitimately looking for ways to reinvent it, but also generally, new ways to tell a story. We saw that very clearly with Prey, taking the Predator concept back to the 1700s, and pitting a high-tech, interstellar alien warrior hunter against a completely outmatched, but tough as hell young Comanche badass. It’s a concept that made many wonder “well how would that work?” To which Trachtenberg replied, “Just like this,” before dropping, perhaps, the best Predator film to date on us.

He did the same thing with Predator: Killer of Killers; an anthology film that could have and by every definition should have been a cash grab, but ended up becoming an essential building block for the Predator universe. In fact, during the panel, Trachtenberg himself revealed that the post-credits scene that debuted when the film originally premiered on Hulu was going to receive a face-lift with a completely new and badass moment that expands on that final sequence. Within Hall H, Trachtenberg and team were gracious enough to show it for us attendees, but this is now live as well. Furthermore, that film told some really terrific POC-driven stories that made the world of Predator so much richer, more emotional, and even more brutal/violent/bloody!

Hence my excitement for Predator: Badlands. There’s a great deal of this movie that is greatly experimental, centering solely on a Yautja outcast who must survive in a hostile world alongside a broken Synth, to make his way back home and claim revenge. In short, by making the protagonist of the picture an actual Yautja, Trachtenberg is adding a completely new perspective to this series, that will truly get us to reevaluate whether or not to even root for humanity in the future.

The excitement for the next movie was completely palpable within the grand meeting room adorning the San Diego Convention Center. Moderator and filmmaker extraordinaire, Kevin Smith, was selected to moderate the panel, and he in turn was brought out by a Yautja elder, speaking to us in his native tongue, scanning us with his heat vision. Take a look at the footage here:

Smith brought out a panel of modest size, but immeasurable talent, as guests Trachtenberg, actors Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, and legendary Predator creature designer Alec Gillis took to the stage to discuss the project. The whole thing was a celebration of fandom, and creativity. And Smith began diving in by asking Trachtenberg about his origins as a Predator fan.

“Probably like a lot of you… I grew up loving the idea of seeing an R-rated movie for the first time,” Trachtenberg began. “And Predator was on that list. And I vaguely remember being in the back of a carpool on the way to a karate tournament. And all the older kids described literally every scene of Predator to me. And it was then I started dreaming. And there was even a GamePro magazine (that doesn’t exist anymore). And there was a contest to design a video game level. And I designed a Predator level. I didn’t win the contest. But here I am!”

It goes to show you, kids, you just have to keep reaching for that rainbow!

Trachtenberg continued saying, “I started out doing podcasts, and was a fan of movies, and comics, and video games. And I came to Hall H, literally every year for a stretch of eight years. And I would wait in line starting at 2am… I was here for the infamous pencil stabbing incident… I was here for the first time they showed the Iron Man footage, all the way to when The Avengers assembled. And you can imagine the idea of bringing a movie to Comic-Con would be a big deal for me. And it sort of factored in, whenever I would think about making a movie, I would think, ‘Oh. This might play at Comic-Con! Maybe I should do this!’ But feeling that if I [went] it would be for something that really matters. And let me tell you, what we have to show you guys… what this movie really is, is truly awesome! And something I’m really proud of. “

Knowing about how deep Trachtenberg’s roots go in terms of nerd culture allows us to feel confidence in his ability to take this franchise where it needs to go. After his work in Prey and Killer of Killers, we understand his sincerity behind wanting to do a movie that will satisfy the inner-child in him. The 44-year old filmmaker gets excited for genre, and understand narratively how to make it work, but also challenge it; especially in making Badlands center on a protagonist that would be the antagonist in any other Predator movie.

“Making a movie where the Predator wins, I didn’t love the idea of just making a slasher movie and the bad guy is the winner” he began. “I really wanted to see if there was a way to make it feel like a really emotional and visceral journey. And one where you can really connect with the Predator. And so I realized, there’s another thing — even more than the Predator franchise — in sci-fi we all love the side characters. We fall in love with creatures and robots. And they’re often relegated to being the sidekick or the villain. Never the protagonist. So that to me was the bigger deal. Hitching people on a ride… I know it’s really fun to go to your favorite theme park and ride a ride you’ve done a million times. But there’s something really special about strapping into something and going to the tip of the precipice and knowing that you have no idea what’s going to happen next. And that very much is Badlands.”

One of the more interesting notes that Trachtenberg went into was that the film was going to focus exclusively on two characters: Dek, a Yautja Warrior outcast, and Thia, a broken Weyland-Yutani synthetic. The dynamic between them was, according to Trachtenberg, inspired by Chewbacca and C-3P0 from Empire Strikes Back, in which the broken protocol droid was being carried around by Chewie for much of the movie. In that grand tradition, so is Thia on Dek’s back. This mean that star, Fanning, also had to be attached to the back of her large co-star.

“I, like you all was a huge fan of Prey,” Fanning began. “What Dan has done with this Predator franchise is unprecedented. And reading the script, what really drew me to it was it had so much heart and emotion. And Prey had that, but what makes this unique is that there’s no humans in this film. I play a synthetic android. [Dek] plays a Predator creature. And at the same time there’s so much humanity and heart. And a real unlikely friendship among these two characters. And I was quite blown away from the script. It’s a new genre for me, There were so many new physical challenges and acting challenges. I do play two parts in the film. So there are two characters that I play… It’s so exciting. And just to be with Dimitrius, who is speaking Yautja. It’s a whole different language he’s speaking, and he had to learn it. I had to learn it a bit also. We also shot in New Zealand on these beautiful locations. Also for Predator it has these practical effects. Of course there are visual effects. But Dimitrius was there in the incredible suit… I was really strapped to his back for hours and hours and flying through the air as a backpack. Strapped to wires in rivers. And the wires were hooked up to trees and nature…so there were a lot of firsts for me and the whole crew.”

From everything that Fanning stated, it really reinforced the dedication to the craft of making this film as practical as possible. It’s something that I believe Trachtenberg has a profound passion for, and it’s visible in Prey and throughout what we’ve seen and heard about for Badlands. This dedication to the craft is something that does often get lost in big budget studio films. So hearing that Trachtenberg is truly committed to making the film as worthy of cinema as it can be is reassuring.

Naturally you simply cannot do any sort of Predator movie without an actual Predator. And what’s fascinating about what Trachtenberg has done with casting and narrative means he can pull a talented new face to command an imposing presence in his film, Enter Samoan/Tongan actor, Koloamatangi. Having previously only starred in a fascinating mini-series called The Panthers, about the rise of a Polynesian rebel group inspired by the example of The Black Panthers, Koloamatangi has not had as much exposure to Hollywood as his co-star. However it doesn’t diminish the amount of incredible work he accomplished in this movie, truly putting his body on the line for art.

“It was a really fun experiment,” Koloamatangi started. “The whole process of bringing Dek to life was a lot of physical training in the beginning (preparing the body for the suit) is a little bit taxing… but it’s the most rewarding feeling when you get to hang up your boots (or in my case my Yautja feet) at the end of the day. And a whole chunk of it was just learning the language… [We constructed the whole language of Yautja] for the film. And that’s such a cool thing I’m excited to show you guys. It hasn’t really been established properly within the franchise. So being able to bring that is awesome.”

Having an actor as incredible as Koloamatangi to fill in a suit is one thing. Designing the look and feel of this suit as well as every Yautja costume and make-up effect in this film is another thing entirely. This is where 6-film veteran of the Predator franchise, Gillis, comes in. Gillis studied under the legendary Stan Winston to bring the original Predator to life in the original 1987 film, and has continued to help evolve this franchise in a huge way.

“We had eight weeks [on the first film],” stated Gillis. “It was a race to get the thing done so we could save Arnold’s movie. This time it’s more measured, there’s more resources available. And of course this is my third Dan Trachtenberg Predator film.”

“Alec also helped design all the creatures in Killer of Killers,” stated Trachtenberg. “Even though it was animated, we wanted to make sure Alec’s eye was guiding us through.”

Of course the panel was only one of the surprises in store for us in Hall H. Trachtenberg and the entire crew treated us to the first 15-minutes of Badlands. And admittedly the whole thing was a lot more emotional than one might expect from a film about giant alien hunters who usually don’t speak. For the scene, we were immersed in a world and culture comprised only of Yautja. Suddenly, we’re introduced to a young warrior named Dek, is trying to learn combat with his father. Unfortunately their training session is interrupted by a Yautja elder, who arrives at the scene. The elder explains that Dek is weak and wants to dispatch of him, Thankfully Dek’s father does everything tooth and nail to ensure his son gets away.

These types of relationship dynamics and emotional beats are incredibly new for this franchise. It’s especially bold to give a sense of humanity and emotion to a Yautja, and risky but brilliant to keep the entire movie more or less subtitled. Doing this will ultimately lead to us better understanding and perhaps even sympathizing with the Yautja as a species than we’ve ever done before. And I for one cannot wait for it!

The panel ended with everyone at the panel receiving a mask, an IMAX upgrade, and a poster for the upcoming blockbuster. From there, Smith took the whole cast under his wing to prepare for a large scale Predator selfie. And of course, Trachtenberg, and his whole cast were excited by the prospect.

We couldn’t agree more! We simply cannot wait for this film, and how it’ll change the game for sci-fi survival horror! Predator: Badlands officially lands in theaters November 7!