Dan Trachtenberg Says GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Helped Him Embrace the Adorable Badassery of Bud in PREDATOR: BADLANDS
Predator: Badlands isn’t just another entry in the long-running sci-fi franchise, it’s a wild mix of brutal action and heartfelt camaraderie.
Director Dan Trachtenberg recently shared that while developing the movie’s smallest (and arguably cutest) character, he worried about making her too adorable. But thanks to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, he realized there’s room in the Predator universe for an adorable badass character.
“The movie is very much about characters that appear to be one way, but then are actually quite different,” Trachtenberg told Variety.
“I thought about Rocket Raccoon or Groot – adorable, but also super badass. We're making a movie where the monster, predator, ugly mother****er is the protagonist. I did not think that should be the only crazy idea.”
That mindset led to the creation of Bud, a mute but fierce creature who joins Dek, a Yautja “runt” on a dangerous mission to Genna, better known as the Death Planet.
Dek’s out to prove himself a worthy hunter and avenge his brother’s death, but along the way finds himself teaming up with Thia, a legless Weyland-Yutani synth, and Bud, whose slobbery affection and loyal ferocity make her the unexpected heart of the group.
“I play a lot of World of Warcraft and the Murloc is a creature from [the game] that informed her design a little bit,” Trachtenberg explained. “Then it was bouncing back and forth between what a big Bud would be like and what a small Bud would be like to find the right stuff.”
Starring Dimitirus Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning, Predator: Badlands draws from classic team-up stories that balance action with emotion. Trachtenberg revealed that Terminator 2 and Mad Max also helped shape the film’s tone, pushing him to bring “warmth and emotionality” into the Predator franchise without sacrificing its savage edge.
“There's always something really cool to me about the badass with the sidekick. It's something that makes us care in a very specific way. We care about creatures and animals very differently than we care about humans,” Trachtenberg said.
“I love the idea of him backpacking and something little beside him. I always have in my head one shot in The Monster Squad of all the kids with Frankenstein in the silhouette of the setting sun. Sometimes I think in that kind of iconography. So that informed it, too.”
Trachtenberg clearly has a soft spot for the bonds that form between unlikely heroes and their companions.