Badlands’s Prequel Fixes the New Movie’s Worst Scene

November 13, 2025

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Predator: Badlands already has a prequel, and it expands on the story to fix one of the new movie’s worst components. Badlands is the third installment in the franchise from filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, whose celebrated work on Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers has made him a fan favorite among fans of the sci-fi/horror series. Trachtenberg has developed a reputation for upending the franchise’s norms, pushing what audiences recognize from the 1987 classic, Predator, to unexpected new horizons.

Predator: Badlands’ reviews have been generally favorable, but with any major blockbuster, there’s still room to critique. The film has an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score and an even better 95% Popcornmeter from fans, celebrating the film’s good-natured humor, the significant expansion of Predator lore on-screen, and the exciting, well-crafted action sequences. In terms of world-building, Predator: Badlands is a notable leap for the franchise, which has commonly left lore elements, including the term “Yautja,” exclusively to expanded media such as comics and video games.

‘Predator: Badlands’s Tie-in Prequel Comic Improves the Intro Sequence

20th Century Studios

Predator: Badlands has been officially expanded upon with a prequel one-shot comic, distributed by Marvel Comics as supplementary material for the film. The story is written by Ethan Sacks, a comic writer who’s worked on numerous titles for Star Wars and Marvel Comics, including recent runs centered on Jango Fett and other bounty hunter characters. The Predator comic sees Dek and Kwei, prior to the events of the film, on a foreign planet for a hunt mission where Dek is sent to retrieve a piece of technology from a crashed spaceship.

Dek’s journey in the comic prequel isn’t all that different from the start of Predator: Badlands. He fails the mission and returns to Yautja Prime, where his father berates him and calls him a failure. This tees up Dek for his motivation and emotional journey in the film, but there’s one crucial detail that adds to the story. Kwei saves Dek after an explosion nearly kills him at the crashed spaceship, to which Dek responds by saying: “You should not have returned for me.” Kwei rebutes this with “You saved me before, brother.”

A crucial element of Predator: Badlands is its exploration of Yautja culture and the ultimate weakness that comes from isolation. The Yautja are proud, formidable hunters, but even they are not invincible, and Dek’s story in the film proves that they are stronger when they accept help from others. However, this all goes to show that Kwei’s decision to save Dek is one that’s highly taboo in their culture. By standing up to their father, Kwei betrays everything he’s been raised to know, and the movie doesn’t really explain why, aside from the fact that they’re brothers.

It’s worth keeping in mind that, while the Yautja are portrayed in a humanistic way in Predator: Badlands, they are not human beings. Their biology and brain functions, as well as their culture, are different. On one level, Trachtenberg sought to make the Yautja more relatable than in previous iterations, but it still raises questions about Kwei and why he makes the drastic decision that he does. By revealing that Dek had previously saved him, it shows that Kwei and Dek share an unusual bond of nobility and selflessness that extends beyond this one, singular moment.

Predator: Badlands is a strong movie overall, but the opening fifteen minutes are arguably the least effective component. The opening is important for establishing Dek’s motivation and plot objectives, but the characterizations are so generic and the interactions so clichéd that it drags down the remainder of the film. By adding extra context to this scene, even with just a brief comic storyline, Predator: Badlands has a sturdier foundation for its emotional core, bolstering the movie as a whole.