Podcast: ‘Predator: Badlands’ Gets Uncertified

Given the success of Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, it's pretty fair to say that Dan Trachtenberg has become Hollywood's Yautja whisperer. Still, there's a pretty big difference between a low-risk streaming release and a high-profile IMAX rollout. Would Trachtenberg continue his success with Predator: Badlands, the first theatrical relaese of a Predator movie since Shane Black's The Predator in 2018? This PG-13 take on the franchise may not be for everyone, but it is absolutely for both of the hosts of the Certified Forgotten podcast.

After the death of his brother, young warrior Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) decides to honor his memory in the way of the Yautja: find the most dangerous thing alive and try to kill it before it kills you. But after crash-landing on a dangerous moon, Dek finds himself just one of many factions attempting to cull the planet’s creatures. His hunt will take him up against the combined forces of Weyland Yutani itself – but help comes in the form of Thia (Elle Fanning), a half-broken android in search of her missing legs and her twin “sister.” Will Dek survive? Can there be an entire Predator movie someone saying, “if it bleeds, we can kill it”? You’ll have to check out Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands for yourself to find out.

In this short excerpt from the episode, Monagle explains why the film's faithful recreation of the expanded universe makes for blah blah blah

Part of the reason why there's so much crossover with the Alien universe is because that becomes a playground for Yautja to be the protagonists. They get to be the ones that are on a hunt, and just like the Alien v Predator movies, they seed planets with xenomorphs and they try and go kill them. And it's the ultimate thing, and they do that on Earth, and blah blah blah. But Yautja only really appear in Predator movies as the antagonist. They're hunting humans, they're killing humans, and I gotta say, that's kind of boring.

The Predator: Badlands episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, or the podcast platform of your choice.