Besides featuring a Yautja as the protagonist for the first time in franchise history, the biggest selling point for Predator: Badlands is the film’s connections to the Alien franchise. Taking advantage of the fact that Alien and Predator take place in the same universe, director Dan Trachtenberg cast Elle Fanning to portray Thia, a synthetic created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. This development has caused fans to wonder what other ties to Alien will be included in Predator: Badlands. Trachtenberg has already confirmed there won’t be a xenomorph, but another Alien character has now been confirmed.
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Disney (which owns Predator: Badlands distributor 20th Century Studios) recently released the official Predator: Badlands credits on its press site. Included in the cast is Alison Wright, who is voicing MU/TH/UR, the computer featured in the Alien movies. Another interesting addition to the film has connections to Stranger Things; Matt and Ross Duffer provide the voice of “Kwei’s Ship Computer.” Kwei is a Yautja and the older brother of main character Dek.
Predator: Badlands‘ Connections to the Alien Franchise are Natural
As exciting as it is to see two iconic pop culture properties crossover, these types of projects come with a certain amount of risk. It can be easy for the filmmakers to fall into the trap of inserting too much fan service at the expense of telling a compelling story. Fortunately, this was something Trachtenberg aimed to avoid when he was making Predator: Badlands. In the past, he’s spoken about wanting to make sure any shared universe connections were organic to the narrative. Weyland-Yutani was worked into the film after Trachtenberg had the idea to make a film without any human characters.
With that in mind, MU/TH/UR is a logical addition to Predator: Badlands. While Thia’s mission in the film is unknown, it stands reason to believe that at some point she will need to access a Weyland-Yutani ship or facilities, having to communicate with MU/TH/UR to complete certain tasks. This is a fun way to flesh out Predator: Badlands‘ ties to Alien without being too distracting. If a Weyland-Yutani synthetic is going to talk to an artificial intelligence system, it would be strange if it wasn’t MU/TH/UR.
It’ll be interesting to see how this version of MU/TH/UR differs from what was seen in previous Alien movies. Trachtenberg has noted that Predator: Badlands is set well into the future of the franchise timeline. This was done primarily to ensure it could tell a story that stands on its own, but it also puts Trachtenberg in a position to showcase how in-universe technology has evolved. And with AI an ever-growing presence in our daily lives, perhaps Predator: Badlands will look to provide some commentary on that front. It looks like the focus will largely be on action and set pieces, but there are opportunities to mix some substance with the style.
Over the past few years, the Predator franchise has experienced a resurgence, and Badlands has it poised for even bigger and greater things. The film could easily lay the foundation for a new Aliens vs. Predator film, a concept Trachtenberg seems open to (and he has more ideas in his head that he’d like to explore). He seems to have a level head when it comes to the writing process, ensuring that anything in his movies is included for a reason. Badlands has earned positive early reactions, so it sounds like he has a solid handle on the franchise.
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