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Predator: Badlands is the buddy comedy you never knew you needed, judging by the new trailer

Elle Fanning is a surprisingly upbeat exposition machine in the new trailer for this fall's Predator: Badlands

Published on Mon Jul 21 2025

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If fans believed they knew what to expect from a Predator movie — or, for that matter, from a Weland-Yutani robot from the Alien franchise — the new trailer for Predator: Badlands might offer food for thought, setting up the primary relationship in the upcoming movie between a new Predator on its first hunt and an astonishingly chatty, sarcastic robot.

Elle Fanning plays Thia, the robot in question — and one other character as well, who we think we can see at the 0:55 mark (note the purple streak in the hair, which doesn’t seem to be visible when Fanning appears elsewhere in the trailer). Despite her exposition-heavy dialogue, she already looks set to be a highpoint of the movie as director Dan Trachtenberg continues to play with the formula of the Predator franchise with each new installment he’s involved with. This time around, it’s… a buddy movie…?

Take a look at the trailer for yourself:

Predator: Badlands, featuring Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, will be released November 7.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.