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One of the more surprising things about the promotional rollout for “Predator: Badlands” was the reveal that Elle Fanning appeared to be playing a Weyland-Yutani android; something usually reserved for the “Alien” movies.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, “Badlands” director Dan Trachtenberg confirms Fanning’s character Thia is a Weyland-Yutani synthetic, and he also explains why he chose that over casting the actress as a human.
Read More: ‘Predator: Badlands’ Trailer Teases The Ultimate Hunt
Trachtenberg explained that one of the challenges of “Badlands” and one of the things that inspired the film was the idea of making Predator a sympathetic protagonist.
He initially considered making Thia a human, but worried that would take too much focus away from Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi). That’s when the idea of using a synthetic character came up.
“And then the next thought was, wait a minute, I know a company that makes robots,” Trachtenberg recalled. “And that led to the Weyland-Yutani synth of it all.”
Making Dek more relatable is also why unlike the Yautja in other “Predator” films, you won’t see him wearing a helmet very often.
“We were tempted, but the whole thing is, can you find a way into this monster?” Trachtenberg said. “Shrek isn’t wearing that knight’s helmet throughout the whole movie.”
“It’s like, no, the idea is he’s an ogre. That’s it — and you’re going to have the experience with that guy and hopefully fall in love. And so that became the path here: really saying, yes, he is a creature, and yes, hopefully you’re going to fall in love.”
While Thia is a synthetic like the ones we’re used to from the “Alien” films, Trachtenberg wants fans to know they shouldn’t expect a full-on crossover between “Alien” and “Predator” in “Badlands.”
“It is exciting to have this movie be just a little toe-dip link between those franchises,” Trachtenberg said. “It’s important to me — I am sure people anticipate a much bigger thing, and maybe other movies and other cinematic universes would be more aggressive — but I really didn’t want to take all the action figures and smush them together. I really wanted to tell a cool story.”
The “Alien” and “Predator” franchises have crossed over before and may do so again. Along with “Alien Vs. Predator” entries in other media, there was the 2004 film “Alien Vs. Predator” and its 2007 sequel “Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem.”
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