Dan Trachtenberg Says He’s “Dreaming Up More” PREDATOR Stories as He Juggles New Paramount Deal
The future of the Predator franchise is looking pretty awesome right now. Even with a fresh first-look deal at Paramount, Dan Trachtenberg isn’t walking away from the Yautja. In fact, he’s actively cooking up new ideas for where the sci-fi action series could go next.
After steering the franchise through Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg has become the creative force most closely associated with the series’ modern resurgence.
With Badlands pulling in over $184 million worldwide and earning strong reactions from fans, many assumed he’d circle back for something like Prey 2. Then came the curveball when the filmmaker landed a producing and directing deal at Paramount.
In a recent conversation with ScreenRant during the home media rollout for Badlands, Trachtenberg made it clear that he’s balancing both worlds.
“Well, Predator, I'm in this zone of dreaming up more, like I said, as I had been previously. And then Paramount is this incredible opportunity to make original things that have been in my heart and mind for a long time.
“I'm thrilled to have a place to make them theatrically. And they also have some very cool IP that I could now get to think about, like, ‘Oh, what might I do with that?’ So, it's a simultaneous thing, but Paramount now is definitely really exciting, and I've been writing stuff to hopefully make there.”
Trachtenberg described his creative process as being in a “multipronged” mode, the same mindset that led to Killer of Killers and Badlands coming together around the same time. Rather than just building sequels, he’s thinking about new entry points into the franchise.
"Okay, we now have this cool story, we now have these other characters that would be cool to make more with, but is there anything else that we haven't seen in the franchise, or anything else in sci-fi that would be so cool to do as another entry point?
“It's like all three of [my movies] — Prey, Killers of Killers and Badlands — are entry points of the franchise. So, I'm thinking along those lines, as well.”
That approach has clearly worked. Prey introduced us to Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, and became a streaming hit. Killer of Killers expanded the mythology in brutal fashion. Then there was Badlands, which ended on a cliffhanger that demands follow-up, especially with Dek’s complicated dynamic with his mother.
There’s also the dangling thread from Killer of Killers revealing that Naru and other survivors of Yautja hunts have been cryogenically frozen and transported to Yautja Prime. That’s a wild concept just waiting to explode into something bigger.
Prey 2 is still hovering in the background. Midthunder has repeatedly said she’d love to return as Naru, and Trachtenberg has made it clear he’s interested. He just isn’t rushing into anything unless it feels right.
As for the Paramount deal, the studio has been locking in major talent following its Skydance merger, including the Duffer Brothers, Jon M. Chu, and James Mangold.
Unlike some of those filmmakers, Trachtenberg doesn’t have a specific project announced yet, which leaves him free to develop original ideas while continuing to shape Predator.
When asked whether there’s existing Paramount IP he’d love to tackle, Trachtenberg offered a revealing look into how his ideas evolve.
“There's stuff there that I have had those thoughts. Funny enough, there's things there that, long time ago, I had pitched a take for that didn't happen. And then that became, ‘Oh wait, I could use that here instead.’
I always have this story, that apocryphal story, stuck in my head of Spielberg wanting to do — he was in Hawaii with George Lucas, and he was upset that he couldn't do James Bond, because they wouldn't hire an American filmmaker.
“And George was like, ‘Don't worry, kid, I got something for you. I got the thing. Let's make our own James Bond, so to speak.’ So, I've always carried that with me of like, ‘Okay, don't worry. They didn't say yes to this, but let's do it on your own terms.’
“And lots of Predator ideas came from that historically for me. And there's stuff at Paramount that unfortunately, now I've done in different ways, but also things that I have had that we've never seen X done in this way, but the truly exciting thing really was the opportunity to make things that aren't even an IP yet, that might be one day.”
Trachtenberg isn’t just extending a franchise. He’s constantly looking for angles we haven’t seen before, whether that’s a Comanche warrior facing a Yautja in Prey or exploring frozen survivors and interstellar politics in future installments.
There’s even the possibility of bigger crossovers. Badlands nudged the door open for another Alien vs. Predator scenario, and producer Ben Rosenblatt has confirmed talks with Arnold Schwarzenegger about potentially returning. Nothing is locked in, but the sandbox is wide open.