One assumes that the strange planet in the Predator: Badlands teaser is not literally called “world of hurt”, but that’s what the text says. And it certainly looks unfriendly: stabby plants! Murderous vines! In one of the teaser’s two lines of dialogue, Elle Fanning (The Great) says, “You’re hunting something that can’t be killed.”
But she’s not talking about a Predator. She’s talking to one. The brief synopsis says:
Predator: Badlands, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
Perhaps she is talking both to and about a Predator, though “the ultimate adversary” could mean anything. (Maybe it’s a xenomorph! But probably not.) 20th Century Studios President Steve Asbell previously called Badlands “an absolutely bonkers idea,” saying, “It is a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is. And I mean, it’s awesome. It is so nuts. But in Dan, we trust.”
Predator: Badlands comes from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg, and it will be his second Predator film this year, after the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, which arrives on Hulu in June. Badlands gets the full theatrical release—including IMAX, for extra-big bone-crunching and bloodsplatters!—on November 7th.
