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Predator: Badlands is giving Predator fans the movie they’ve always wanted

The movie is set to hit theaters in November, years after the debut of Prey.

By Joe Allen Apr 24, 2025 5:52 AM

Elle Fanning in Predator Badlands — 20th Century Studios

After the success of Prey, there’s some new energy in the Predator franchise. What’s even better for Predator fans, though, is that the next installment seems designed to give them something they’ve always wanted. Namely, a movie that follows a predator’s POV.

In the first trailer for Predator: Badlands, a predator named Dek is exiled from his clan, only to meet a humanoid-looking life-form played by Elle Fanning. The two of them team up to take on something that “can’t be killed,” and a long the way, we get some pretty incredible looks at the homeworld of the predators.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who also directed Prey and 10 Cloverfield Lane, this movie looks to have an even broader scope than Prey. The movie will hit theaters on Nov. 7, but if you can’t wait that long, Trachtenberg has also put together an adult animated anthology film called Predator: Killer of Killers that is set to hit Hulu on June 6. Between the two films, fans of the Predator franchise are set to have a remarkably good year.

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Although we don’t yet know exactly where Badlands will head following its premise, or the exact nature of Fanning’s role, Trachtenberg has proven to be an incredibly sure set of hands when it comes to franchise material. Prey was a surprising success in part because it got to the core of what made the franchise compelling to begin with. Badlands looks to be quite a bit more complicated, but hopefully Trachtenberg still knows how to make the story as compelling as possible.

Joe Allen is a freelance writer at Digital Trends, where he covers Movies and TV. He frequently writes streaming… Read Full Bio

What Is a Cigar Without the Perfect Pair? What to Drink With Your Favorite Stick

cigar on an old fashioned

Chocolate and peanut butter. Beer and pizza. Buzz and Woody. Ruth and Gherig. There are just some things that work well together. And no matter what you do, you will never beat them and spend all of your time trying to find a more iconic pair than what already exists. I can count on one hand how many times I have smoked a cigar without an old fashioned in the other hand. And, there is a reason there aren’t more times…because, honestly, why would I waste the time smoking without drinking? Why would I waste chocolate without peanut butter? Why would I waste beer without pizza? I wouldn’t. And the Yankees wouldn’t have been the same without Murderer’s Row. And Toy Story would have been nothing without the rivals-to-friends of Buzz and Woody.

But how do you pair a cigar with the right drink? For me, bourbon mixed with sugar, bitters, and a bit of fruit is a good combination with anything. But I reached out to John Gaglio from La Aurora to get a little more guidance on how to deepen my pairing of the two, and here is what I learned.

Do you know the myth of Napoleon (the pig…not the man)

Napoleon

One of the many times I watched The Gentlemen, I laughed at the scene where Matthew (Jeremy Strong) joked that it was illegal in France to name a pig Napoleon. Of course, there are ridiculous laws all over the place. Want a few? In Georgia, it is illegal to eat fried chicken with a fork. In Arkansas, it is against the law to say the name incorrectly. Which means Bill Clinton would have come after me for years of me saying “ARE-Kansas.” It is prohibited to sleep on top of a refrigerator in Pennsylvania. That means my cat is a thug in Penn. And one of my favorites: It is illegal for unmarried women to parachute on Sundays.

The point is that there are crazy laws all over the place that seem completely ridiculous, and there is almost always a story behind them. So, is the Napoleon pig law a real thing? Is it illegal to raise a swine and name it after the legendary French Emperor? Well, let’s dig in. Why? Because I am a nerd and I need company in the weeds.

Who does James Bond work for? And is MI6 real?

James Bond Specter double breasted

We have some news on the movement of the next James Bond. According to reports, we are looking at the final four (we know of three). Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk), Callum Turner (Eternity, One Night Only), and Josh O’Connor (The Crown, Challengers) are all in the final running to portray the next 007. We also, allegedly, have a fourth, unannounced actor in the running. But of course we do. And since we have news and movement on the James Bond front, I started thinking about what the next movie will be about. That took me down a rabbit hole, and I landed on a question. What is MI6? James Bond’s employer is a shadowy government agency, like Jason Bourne’s Treadstone or Ethan Hunt’s Impossible Mission Force (IMF). But there is one major difference between them and the organization that signs 007’s paychecks.

His is real.