‘Predator: Badlands’ Director Dan Trachtenberg And Actors Elle Fanning And Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi Discuss Inspirations, Auditioning, And More

At San Diego Comic-Con, Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Predator: Badlands, and the film’s stars, Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, discussed the upcoming film in an interview with IGN. Trachtenberg began the interview by discussing the film’s video game-like design, with the Predator protagonist being dropped onto a planet and having to fight various creatures. He says that was intentional, citing video games like the modern Prince of Persia reboot, the Uncharted series, and 2018’s God of War as inspirations. “All of that kind of influenced the nature of Dek and Thia [Badlands’s two leads] in this movie, along with several other things,” says Trachtenberg.  Trachtenberg also cited C-3PO and Chewbacca in The Empire Strikes Back as inspiration, as the imagery of having the character of Dek carry the android character Thia on his back like a backpack, saying, “it was kind of the initial inspiration.”

Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the Predator, Dek, discussed the audition process. “It’s fun,” he says before explaining, “In the original auditioning process, I didn’t even know I was auditioning for The Predator. It was just a one-page thing that just said ‘creature’.” Schuster-Koloamatangi also explains that in the audition, he had to interpret much of the dialogue himself and make it up in his own language, and that he had to “run an obstacle course like I was American Ninja Warrior.”

Fanning, who plays Thia, also discussed what impressed her most about the film, compared to her recent work on the video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, saying, “What amazes me about this film is that it’s tangible. Things are practical. Someone’s always in the Predator suit. You’re not looking at a tennis ball.” She also thinks people will resonate most with the emotions of Badlands: “That’s what I think people will be surprised by with the film,” says Fanning. “The humanity of the story and the emotion, but there’s no humans involved. It’s just a creature and a robot, but it’s one of the most emotional stories you’ll see this year.”

Predator: Badlands will release exclusively in theaters on November 7th.