Early ideas for Predator: Badlands involved Naru and World War II
Predator: Badlands, the third entry in the Predator franchise from Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers director Dan Trachtenberg, reached theatres last Friday – and broke the franchise record with a $40 million opening weekend at the domestic box office. It’s probably safe to say that the executives at 20th Century Studios are feeling very good about handing Trachtenberg the keys to the Predator kingdom. But while his unusual approach to Predator: Badlands, which has a Predator as the protagonist and teams him with a damaged synth called Thia, who he straps to his back as he traverses a dangerous alien planet, appears to have worked out, Trachtenberg revealed during interviews that early ideas for the film would have resulted in a very different movie. One that, at first, might have involved World War II – and, at another stage, might have brought Prey heroine Naru into the action.
Trachtenberg told The Direct, “The very first nugget of the idea was, what if the Predator wins? And I just really didn’t want it to be a slasher movie where the slasher wins, I really wanted you to root for the guy, and then, in rooting for it, I was like, Well, I guess he could be, like, set in WWII, and he’s kicking Nazi butt or something. But even then, I felt like that’s not really a special new movie. And then it became, wait a second, what if he’s really the protagonist of his own story, and I get people to really root for him on his own journey, his own adventure?” The idea evolved into something that would be set on a different planet and feature no humans at all… except for maybe Naru. Trachtenberg told Screen Time, “I did think about the pairing (of the Predator and Naru) before it was Thia, but then I thought, ‘Well, then I’m not doing the premise,’ and I really wanted to do the premise: the Predator is protagonist, and no humans in the movie. And so it became further down the line we can do some cooler things, maybe.” He said there’s “a bigger plan down the line” for Naru.
This wasn’t the first time Trachtenberg considered having Naru team up with a Predator. When Prey was released, he told AVP Galaxy that one of his earliest ideas for Prey would have involved Naru and a young Predator teaming up to battle the fur trappers that are in the movie (and still get messed up by both the Predator and Naru, even though they’re not working together).
What do you think of the early ideas for Predator: Badlands? Would you want to see a Predator movie that’s set during World War II, or one where the Predator teams up with Naru? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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