From the first trailer of Predator: Badlands, the new movie in the long-running sci-fi franchise, it made it clear that it was fully embracing its connection to the Alien franchise. Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that Elle Fanning’s Thia had the Weyland-Yutani logo embedded in her eyes, making it clear the character was not only a synthetic but a part of that notorious group. The connections largely increased the call from fans for a good, proper version of Alien vs. Predator to happen, and that could still happen. Predator: Badlands had even more connections than just the presence of “The Company,” though, and it goes back to a classic in the Alien series.
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Speaking in a new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg pulled back the curtain on the new movie in a lot of ways. Among the things he confirmed and detailed about Badlands was a piece of equipment seen in the movie’s climactic moment. Many fans were quick to note that it sure looked like a Power Loader from Aliens was present, or at the very least, a newer model of the Power Loader. Trachtenberg’s answer not only gave fans what they wanted but also points toward a major question: What year is Predator: Badlands set?
Predator: Badlands Aliens Easter Egg May Reveal Its Place in the Timeline
Trachtenberg confirmed, yes, that big mech you see in the final act of Predator: Badlands was not only meant to be a Power Loader, but a fully upgraded version of the one seen in Aliens. He said, “We referred to that as the Super Power Loader. That was every intention of being (an Aliens reference). There was a challenge there because the temptation was you want to see the Predator up against something really gnarly and technological, and you want to indulge in all the mech stuff that you possibly could.”
The director went on to note that the use of the “Super Power Loader” sticks to his larger mandate that every movie he makes has, which is, “what can happen in only this movie?” As Trachtenberg noted, “only” in Predator: Badlands can there be a descendant of the Weyland-Yutani power loader from Aliens, because the timeline of the film is pretty nebulous. We can naturally assume that a Power Loader this advanced from what was seen in Aliens is itself many years beyond that film, which was set in 2179. As a result, Predator: Badlands is set much further into the future than that.
Trachtenbergh has not fully committed to a year for Predator: Badlands being set, but noted in an interview with Variety that the film is set “the furthest into the future” that it possibly can be in both the Predator and Alien franchise. This was due in part to not knowing what both Alien: Romulus and Alien: Earth were doing while in production on Badlands, but as a result, he’s made a movie that’s set at least in 2381 (the year that Alien: Resurrection takes place). We may not know the exact time that Predator: Badlands is set in for a while, but given the way it ends, there’s still more story to tell.
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