Predator: Badlands

First hunt. Last chance.

“Predator: Badlands,” which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. The film is directed by the director of Prey Dan Trachtenberg and produced by John Davis, Dan Trachtenberg, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, Brent O’Connor.

Predator: Badlands will release exclusively in theaters on November 7, 2025.

Predator: Badlands official film trailer

The Complex Face of Dek

At the heart of Framestore's contribution lies the young Predator, Dek. Framestore's animation and rigging teams elevated the character by translating subtle human performance into a convincing alien facial system.

The work focused on the significant creative challenge of making a talking Predator expressive and relatable, yet still menacingly alien. This involved intricate mandible-sync performance for the new language established for the film.

The Predator face replacement work on Dek is probably the aspect that best represents Framestore's work. The interpretation of the actor's performance and the translation of that into a believable representation of a very alien facial anatomy was exceptional.

Mark Curtis

VFX Supervisor

Creatively, the main challenges were the translation of human facial performance to Predator facial performance... [the lookdev, rigging and face-shape work] was excellent. First and foremost, the interpretation of the actor's performance and the translation of that into a believable representation of a very alien facial anatomy was exceptional."

Planet Genna

Framestore's teams were responsible for establishing and expanding the harsh reality of the alien world, Planet Genna.

Plate

Final

Working with concept art from the client and the internal VizDev team, Framestore realized these environments with full CG builds, reinforcing the setting's alien nature through sky replacements, unique freezing effects, and the subtle addition of alien flora and fauna.