Predator: Badlands isn’t just another sci-fi reboot — it’s a love letter to the genre, and more specifically, to Star Wars. In fact, director Dan Trachtenberg has admitted that one of the film’s key visuals was directly inspired by Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
In Badlands, Dek visuals— the young Yautja protagonist played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi — carries the damaged android Thia (Elle Fanning) across a barren world after she’s been torn in half off-screen. It’s a striking visual, and one that mirrors Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) carrying the dismantled C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) through Cloud City in the iconic 1980 film.
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It’s easily the film’s most obvious Star Wars connection, but hardly the only one. Badlands opens with a glowing-blade duel between Dek and his brother — a sequence that feels ripped straight from a lightsaber battle. The tone, too, is more space opera than horror: sweeping desert vistas, heartfelt companionship, and even a cute alien pet.
For a franchise once defined by brutal survival, it’s a remarkable transformation.
But the shift feels deliberate. Since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, the studio has been slowly reshaping Predator into something closer to its family-friendly hits. Despite still being pretty violent, Prey (2022) turned the formula into an artful period thriller. And this year's Killer of Killers pushed it into animation. And Badlands — with its visual parallels to Star Wars — cements it as a full-blown sci-fi adventure.
It may not take place in the same faraway galaxy, but the spirit is unmistakable. Between the visual homages, the PG-13 rating, and the emphasis on emotion over violence, Badlands could be the closest Disney has come to blending its two biggest sci-fi properties.
Whether that’s a tease or a coincidence, one thing’s clear: the Force is strong with this one.
Would you like to see Predator cross over with Star Wars? Share your thoughts with us in the comments down below!
