Predator: Badlands is breaking a franchise tradition that continued for nearly four decades. Coming to theaters on November 7, the sixth installment in the sci-fi action franchise from director Dan Trachtenberg follows Thia (Elle Fanning) and Dex’s (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) journey as they battle other creatures as they search for the ultimate adversary.
Regal, AMC, IMAX and other movie theater chains have the movie listed with a PG-13 rating, which would make Badlands the first installment of the famously violent franchise not to have an R rating. The only exception until now is Alien vs. Predator, a crossover between the Alien and Predator franchise.
Badlands will feature a crossover with Alien by introducing a key character in the franchise’s lore, but the movie is billed as a Predator movie. Since the rating was brought to light, fans have expressed mixed feelings about the movie’s more family-friendly rating. Some were worried that the new movie, which was partially a result of Prey‘s success, would fail to match up with its predecessors.
According to the Motion Picture Association, PG-13 movies allow the single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words and the descriptions of violence, if not realistic, extreme or persistent, where R-rated movies feature gore, nudity in sexual context, and explicit language.
The change in rating would allow the new Predator movie to attract a broader audience. However, given that the franchise has built its reputation on its depiction of graphic violence and gore, especially with the 1987 original heavily leaning into the slasher genre, the rating indicates a new direction for the franchise.
Predator: Badlands‘ official trailer has given fans a first look at Thia and Dex’s dynamics as they embark on a journey across a dangerous planet. While the trailer lacks slasher-style kills, it teases the main characters’ on-screen chemistry and thrilling actions. Recently, Trachtenberg also confirmed that the new movie will at least share one trait with the widely successful Prey.
In an interview with ScreenRant, the filmmaker shared that Badlands will open with “a very traumatic event” that sets Dex on an adventure while thrusting the audience into a “high intensity, emotionally, physically situation with him” He further stressed that at core, the new Predator movie tells an underdog story and sees two outcasts forming an unlikely alliance.
While the most logical follow-up to Prey‘s record-breaking streaming premiere and positive reception would be a sequel, producer Ben Rosenblatt explained what made Badlands a higher priority is because it delivers “something unexpected” and Trachtenberg’s intention with this movie was to take a “big swing that no one’s taken yet.“ It being the first main entry in the franchise to break the long-time tradition matches with the director’s vision.
- Release Date
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November 7, 2025
- Director
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Dan Trachtenberg
- Writers
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Dan Trachtenberg, Patrick Aison, John Thomas, Jim Thomas
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek
