Badlands director explains the ending and what it means for the Predator sequel
“If we get a chance to bring this to life..” Dan Trachtenberg confirms what everyone who saw the film thought.
While Predator: Badlands has had a great start in American theaters, the question of what happens next will inevitably arise. And the director has obviously already planned this.
Spoiler alert!
The end of Predator: Badlands clearly opens the door to a new opus: what if the next big Predator in the franchise… was a mother?
Indeed, if you saw Predator: Badlands in the cinema, you saw Dek, a young Predator rejected by his clan, refusing to become the “weak link”. His quest to prove his worth leads him to ally himself with Thia, an empathetic android (Elle Fanning), and Bud, a baby Kalisk who he was originally supposed to take down. Together, they survive Weyland-Yutani, return to the Yautja planet and Dek settles his scores by killing his father. End of the nightmare? Not exactly.
As Dek, Thia and Bud prepare to leave to form their own clan, a ship lands. Thia asks who is coming. Dek replies: “My mother.”
This twist is not a gratuitous wink. Dan Trachtenberg, asked about the possibility of a sequel by EW, accepts this choice, thought of as a narrative springboard:
“I think it’s a great ending because it’s an ironic conclusion. After spending the whole movie dealing with this crazy father, it raises the question of what else Dek might be going through — and how much worse it could be… with his mother! We’re definitely into that idea. If we get the chance to bring all that to life in a sequel, I think it would be really fun to see!”
The continuation of Predator: Badlands and the emancipation of this young hunter has not yet been officially announced. We imagine that it won’t be long.
