Predator: Badlands is full of synthetics who seem to have escaped the Alien universe, but the film isn’t the first time that Alien and Predator have crossed over.
Alien and Predator aren’t nearly as intertwined as the MCU, but the two franchises have a long history of shared connections.
How Are ‘Alien’ and ‘Predator’ Movies Connected?
The first Alien and Predator films were both released by 20th Century Fox, so the potential for a crossover was always there, even if the two didn’t share the same tone.
The two franchises were never originally intended to take place in the same universe, but began to be associated with each other over the decades, mostly thanks to spin-off comic books and video games which pitted the two creatures against one another.
The first film to acknowledge the other was Predator 2 in 1990, which features a xenomorph skull on a trophy wall, intended as an Alien easter egg.
2004 saw the release of the full-blown crossover action film Alien vs. Predator, which was followed by a sequel—however, both failed to live up to the reputation of their parent franchises, and neither are considered canon.
How Is ‘Predator: Badlands’ Connected to The ‘Alien’ Universe?
Predator: Badlands sees the titular predator, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) team up with sentient synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning).
Thia and her sister, Tessa (also Fanning), were manufactured and sent to the planet Genna by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of Alien.
The corporation has a familiar objective, tasking their team with capturing the planet’s immensely dangerous alien (as they do in Alien and beyond), but the synthetic sisters clash over the ethics of the mission.
The betrayal of androids is a theme often explored by the Alien franchise, and the final fight sees Tessa strap herself into a mechanical power loader mech, the same model seen in Aliens, to take on her sister and Dek.
Why Is The ‘Alien’ Connection In ‘Predator: Badlands’?
Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg explained to EW that the connection came naturally, after he had the idea to team a Predator up with a robot, “and then the next thought was, wait a minute, I know a company that makes robots. And that led to the Weyland-Yutani synth of it all.”
However, Trachtenberg made it clear that Badlands is simply a “toe-dip” crossover, and it’s unclear if the connection will be expanded on in future films.
In an effort to free Badlands from the limitations of a shared universe, Trachtenberg set his film far into the future, to ensure that his film wouldn’t poke plotholes in either universe.
“The secret sauce was setting our movie the furthest into the future among both the Predator and Alien franchises so that we did not have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes,” Trachtenberg told the Hollywood Reporter.
“When we first started making Badlands, I don’t think I even knew about Alien: Earth. Maybe I’d heard that it might be happening, and I also wasn’t fully aware of what exactly the story was for Fede Álvarez’s movie [Alien: Romulus]. So I just decided that we will be as far away from it all as we could be.”