The next Alien Vs. Predator movie needs to learn from Predator: Badlands to fix the mistakes of the first two films. While Badlands primarily focuses on its titular species, the Alien franchise has a larger role in the film than initially shared in the trailers. Elle Fanning’s synth character is only a small part of Weyland-Yutani’s impact on the narrative.
In Badlands, Weyland-Yutani, the villainous mega-corporation from Alien, is scouring the planet, Genna, for a creature it can use to better make. This eventually leads to a clash with Dek, the primary Yautja protagonist, who is searching for the same creature. The film showcases the company’s galactic overreach, establishing a common enemy for many alien species, including Yautja and Xenomorphs.
While a Xenomorph and Predator never fight each other in Badlands, it’s easily the best crossover film between the two franchises. After a franchise-best opening weekend at the box office, a new Alien Vs. Predator seems likely, but it needs to use the same formula that made Badlands a hit.
Predator: Badlands’ Formula Can Fix The Next Alien Vs. Predator Movie
2004’s AVP has become a guilty pleasure for many, despite its poor critical reception. It earned $177.4 million worldwide, but received a 21% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The sequel, 2007’s Requiem, also performed well at the box office with $130.3 million, yet it garnered even harsher reactions from critics, earning a 12% RT score.
Meanwhile, Badlands received an 85% RT score and earned $79.2 million in its opening weekend. It’s the best opening weekend for any Predator film, and it’s on its way to surpassing its $105 million budget. However, it would need to pass $200 million to be considered a commercial success, which it could if word-of-mouth gets more audiences in the theater.
Still, it’s a hit with critics and audiences. It’s the first entry with a Predator as the main character, and introduces a hero that’s easy to root for. Dek is a likable protagonist, whose mission to prove himself is one audiences can relate to, even if the mighty Yautja is normally known for hunting and killing humans.
Audiences’ positive response toward Badlands proves that the franchise doesn’t need to follow human characters. It just needs a character whose story is worth investing in. The biggest plague for the AVP films is that the human characters distract from the conflict between Xenomorphs and Predators, which was the main selling point.
The first film at least tied humans directly to the two aliens’ conflict, but the second film didn’t need to include as many human characters. They’re simply there as cannon fodder, giving the Xenomorphs and Predators something to kill while they duke it out. None of the human characters nor their stories are particularly memorable.
Since Dek is already well-liked after Badlands, following him for the next Alien clash would be the best recipe for success. The film wouldn’t need to add any unnecessary humans and could just focus on what audiences want to see, which is an epic battle between the universe’s deadliest killers.
- Release Date
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November 5, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Dan Trachtenberg
- Writers
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Dan Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison, John Thomas, Jim Thomas
- Producers
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Brent O’Connor, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
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Elle Fanning
Thia / Tessa
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek / Father
