'Predator Badlands' director reveals shocking inspiration behind the movie

Dan Trachtenberg has admitted his new sci-fi film Predator: Badlands takes inspiration from Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the video game Shadow of the Colossus.

While conversing with SFX magazine in the new issue, the 44-year-old American filmmaker revealed, "Jaws is one of my favourite movies of all time. It's not my favourite horror movie. I don't consider Jaws a horror movie. But when it's scary, it's fucking terrifying. When it's funny, it's hilarious. When there's drama, it's incredibly sincere and authentic."

"And then when there's adventure, it's high-seafaring adventure. It's all things. It's not one thing. It is excellent at all things. So this movie, in this tone, the Predator's gotta be badass and ferocious and there's going to be this fun thing with Thia and that's gonna be funny, but also sincere and have a pulse of its own,” Trachtenberg said.

The Portal: No Escape director also quipped the 2005 PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus inspired Badlands, especially the bond between Wander and Mono.

In the game, Wander is a young man who rides his horses through an empty land, trying to save Mono. His mission is to kill the sixteen giant Colossi and bring Mono back to life.

"This was a little bit inspired by that in terms of wanting to see the Predator with someone else, this kind of character with the opposite of him. He's very laconic. She is not. She's capable in ways that he is not. But also physically, she's got a real thing that I'm so excited for you guys to see," Trachtenberg noted.

It is pertinent to mention that Predator: Badlands will be released on November 7, 2025 in RealD 3D and IMAX.