Predator: Badlands Director’s Upcoming Animated Horror-Comedy Just Got a Major Update

July 10, 2026, 12:01pm

Dan Trachtenberg knows horror. His taut, constrained, actor-driven aesthetic kept 10 Cloverfield Lane right on the line between brilliant and unwatchably tense and, in Prey, Predator: Badlands, and Predator: Killer of Killers, delivered the best one-two-three punch the Predator franchise has landed to date. His next project honors those roots but does a screaming 180 on tone, and we now have a confirmed release date for it.

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Yehudi Mercado’s indie comic Freddy the 13th is a fun-spooky story for all ages; the movie anticipates a PG rating. The comic mines slasher tropes, folktales, and horror mysticism for humor and all-ages scares. Trachtenberg’s involvement has already drawn attention from comic and horror fans, but details were thin on the ground until now. As yet, the adaptation doesn’t have an official title, but it’s now been confirmed that the Freddy the 13th movie is set for a thematically perfect release on October 13, 2028 (a Friday, natch). The production team finally dropped a few details for fans to dig into.

Freddy the 13th Mines Classic Horror for Funny, Heartfelt Storytelling

Poor Freddy was just trying to have a pleasant vacation when he killed the Boogeyman, gaining the monster’s powers in the process. That’s Mercado’s pitch and he nails it: the comic presents its hapless, kindhearted hero being helplessly hounded by every trope in the horror genre’s blood-inked book. Aiming for PG with colorful 2D visuals, “Freddy the 13th” seems pitched to join the “spooky, not scary” Halloween canon alongside classics like Ghostbusters.

As yet, there’s no word on casting, but the release gives some tantalizing hints about production. Comic creator Yehudi Mercado has a co-director’s chair alongside Trachtenberg as well as a writing credit, so the movie is likely to stick close to the source material. Ben Rosenblatt will also be on the production team: he’s a regular Trachtenberg collaborator and a successful producer on movie and TV projects of impressive range. Have to respect a man who wielded significant creative power on both Let The Right One In and Knuckles.

Trachtenberg Brings Horror and Humor To Creative Team

While details around Freddy the 13th are still being confirmed, production basics are clear enough. The film will be produced by Paramount’s animation division, where Trachtenberg signed a first-look agreement earlier this year. Freddy the 13th will be his first project for Paramount, having worked with Disney beforehand on his Predator projects. Paramount Animated has a decent hit rate to date, notably creating Star Trek: Lower Decks and the first live-action Sonic movie. This will be Trachtenberg’s first director’s credit on a full-length animated film, but not his first animation credit: he directed one of the intros for Warframe and the Portal short film “No Escape.” Mercado has prior as a screen animator as well, notably working on DC Super Hero Girls.

Excited for Freddy the 13th? Have a favorite not-so-scary Halloween classic? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!