Credit: Inside the MagicAt first glance, Predator: Badlands has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. There are no lightsabers, Jedi, or mentions of the Force. But as Disney continues to expand its control over classic sci-fi franchises, fans are beginning to wonder if the walls between all those fictional faraway galaxies might be thinner than they appear.
Since acquiring 20th Century Fox in 2019, Disney has acquired a number of iconic properties — including Alien, Predator, and Independence Day. And Badlands, the newest Predator film from director Dan Trachtenberg (Prey, Killer of Killers), which released last week, seems quietly aware of that fact. While the movie stands firmly within its own universe, it’s filled with nods to other franchises that Disney now owns.
Badlands Establishes a Connection to Two Other Sci-Fi IPs
The most direct connection comes through Weyland-Yutani, the shadowy megacorporation that has dominated the Alien films since 1979. Badlands introduces Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged android carrying Weyland-Yutani branding — an unmistakable link between the two franchises. Of course, it’s not the first time the two have overlapped — that honor goes to the two Alien v Predator films — but it is the first time under Disney’s management, which gives the connection an extra layer of intrigue.
When the first trailer for Badlands dropped, eagle-eyed fans also spotted the skull of an alien from Independence Day on a trophy wall — a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg that further suggests Disney isn’t afraid to let its sci-fi worlds collide, at least symbolically.
Related: Disney Abandons ‘Star Wars’ for a New Faraway Galaxy
Predator Is Committed to Exploring Uncharted Territory
Whether any of this leads anywhere remains to be seen. Trachtenberg has said that new Predator stories should ideally explore uncharted territory — and his last three contributions are proof that he’s committed to this: Prey (2022), the franchise’s first time in the distant past; Killer of Killers (2025), its first-ever animated entry; and now Badlands, a distant-future-set spinoff that focuses on the titular alien warrior being the main hero.
And the studio seems happy to explore the franchise’s mythology without the constraints of strict continuity. But the possibilities are hard to ignore. With Predator now fully under the Disney banner — alongside Alien, Avatar, and Star Wars — the idea of an eventual crossover isn’t as far-fetched as it once sounded.
The Predator/Star Wars Connection Explained
There’s a very direct nod to Star Wars in Badlands, with Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Thia’s partnership directly echoing the scenes in which Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) hauls a broken C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) in Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
Predator Has Already Crossed Over With Marvel
It’s also worth remembering that Predator also recently crossed over with another Disney property in comic books, which saw the Yautja go toe-to-toe with Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Black Panther. If Predator and Star Wars never cross paths on the big screen (or the small screen), there’s every chance they’ll do so in the world of print.
Either way, if Disney ever decides to take the Yautja to another galaxy far, far away, Badlands may be remembered as the first step.
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