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The tinfoil-hat-wearing types here at Popverse (read: me) are pretty sure that 20th Century Studios are laying the groundwork for a sweeping cinematic universe including, but not limited to, the Alien and Predator franchises. But if Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg is to be believed, the inclusion of a Weyland-Yutani android in the upcoming film didn't come from a grand cinematic scheme... but a desire to make a scifi flick without any humans.

In case you don't know what we're talking about - Predator: Badlands focuses on a young Predator called Dek, cast out of his community and into a savage wasteland of monsters. Assisting Dek in his survival will be Thea, an android played by Elle Fanning and who we met in the first Badlands trailer. It was in that trailer that eagle-eyed fans noticed an exciting detail - Thea's eyes, at one point, roll back to reveal the logo of Weyland-Yutani, the sinister megacorp that has been the cause of so much terror in the Alien universe.

But according to the film's director, the idea for including that company came well after creating Thea's character.

"I always wanted no humans in this movie," Trachtenberg told Empire, "so I thought it might be fun to have the Predator with a robot. Then I thought, 'I know a company that makes robots...'"

More than just a new take on a scifi concept, Trachtenberg says he wanted an android to serve as a dynamic opposite to the newly-heroic Predator character, calling the duo a "fun, mismatched pairing."

"One [is] talkative," he says, "One laconic. As exciting and violent as this movie is, the character stuff really pops, too."

So there you have it - the next Alien/Predator crossover came not from a larger studio mandate, but from the natural growth of a unique character...

Or did it?

Although we don't have any reason to believe that Trachtenberg is inventing the reason for Weyland-Yutani's inclusion in Badlands, we do have to point out that, technically, it's not the first Alien reference in this new batch of Predator films. That would be the xenomorph skeletons that one of the antagonists has turned into badass wargear in Predator: Killer of Killers (and keep in mind, development of that film happened before Badlands). 

So did the Killer of Killer animators also just happen to have an opportunity for an Alien reference, or are there larger forces at work here? I'm going to keep asking those questions, but first, I've got to adjust my headgear. Tinfoil gets sweatier than you'd think.

Predator: Badlands comes to theaters November 7. Predator: Killer of Killers is streaming on Hulu now. 

What's that clicking noise? The Predator franchise is back in a BIG way and we're is here to guide you though it. Start off by checking out Popverse's Predator watch order.