Where ‘Predator: Badlands’ Fits in the ‘Alien’ & ‘Predator’ Timeline, Explained

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As a big fan of both the Predator and Alien universes, I find the placement of Predator: Badlands really interesting. Up until now, the Predator movies have mostly been set in our present or the past – think about Prey or even Predator 2. The Alien films, on the other hand, have usually been way in the future, except for those Alien vs. Predator crossovers which brought the Xenomorphs to our time. But Badlands changes things up! It jumps the Predator series forward in time, bringing it much closer to the same future as the Alien films. It’s a cool move that opens up a lot of possibilities for crossovers and shared universe storytelling.

As a big fan of both the Alien and Predator universes, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly where Predator: Badlands fits into everything. Seriously, when does it take place? Does it connect to the stories we’ve seen in Alien: Earth or the new Alien: Romulus? Or is it way further down the line? The movie doesn’t spell it out, but there are a ton of little hints about its place in the timeline. These clues also suggest how the events of previous Predator films quietly influence the story, and even give us a possible timeframe for a future Alien vs. Predator movie. It’s fun trying to piece it all together!

‘Predator: Badlands’ Is Purposely Vague About When It Takes Place


20th Century Studios

As a big fan of the Predator movies, I always appreciate a good mystery, and Predator: Badlands definitely plays with that. The film never explicitly tells you when it fits into the overall Predator story, but it’s pretty clear it happens later on. How do I know? Well, the presence of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and those familiar synthetic beings from the Alien films are a dead giveaway! Apparently, keeping the exact timeline a little fuzzy was intentional. Director Dan Trachtenberg actually told IGN that it was a deliberate choice.

Making this movie was a bit tricky because the Alien universe was expanding rapidly at the time! Romulus hadn’t even come out yet, and while I knew about Alien: Earth, nobody really knew what that project would become. So, we decided to set our story way in the future – basically, after all that other stuff had already happened. We really wanted to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes or feeling like we were trying to fit into an already crowded timeline.

Predator: Badlands is set in the future, though the exact year isn’t specified. The story offers some clues about what happened beforehand, and most of the other Predator movies take place earlier in the timeline. The only exception is the ending of Predator: Killer of Killers, which happens on the Predator’s home planet. Because warriors from different eras appear, the events of Badlands could realistically happen anytime after 1997, the setting of Predator 2.

The Alien movies show that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation was created in 2099 by combining the Weyland and Yutani companies. Because of this, Predator: Badlands happens sometime after the movie Prometheus, and likely after Alien: Covenant as well. It also suggests the story takes place after the events of Alien: Earth and the original Alien film, which are set in 2120 and 2122. Predator: Badlands reveals that Weyland-Yutani is actively colonizing planets and researching them, and with so many artificial beings featured, it could happen at almost any point in the timeline following Alien.

‘Predator: Badlands’ Might Take Place Between ‘Alien 3’ and ‘Alien: Resurrection’


20th Century Studios

The technology showcased in Predator: Badlands, including things like the liftloaders and the new MU/TH/UR computer system, is noticeably more advanced than what we saw in the original Alien or Aliens films. Based on this, the story likely takes place within the 202-year time jump in the Alien universe, between the events of Alien 3 (2179) and Alien: Resurrection (2381). This is a relatively unexplored period in the Alien franchise, and the Predator series hasn’t ventured into it before, giving the filmmakers a lot of room for creative storytelling without contradicting existing storylines. Importantly, this placement also avoids any conflicts with the currently in-development Alien: Earth project or the upcoming Alien: Romulus sequel.

Because the timeline for Predator: Badlands hasn’t been revealed, it could take place around the same time as Alien: Romulus, opening the door for a potential crossover. Fede Alvarez, director of Alien: Romulus, has expressed interest in collaborating with Dan Trachtenberg, who directed Predator: Badlands, on a new Alien vs. Predator movie, and 20th Century Fox has hinted at such a film. Depending on how the story of Alien: Romulus continues—specifically, how long the characters Rain and Andy are lost in space—they might encounter Predator Dek and the synth Thia in a future installment. However, the lack of a fixed timeline for Predator: Badlands also allows the filmmakers to keep the two stories separate if they choose, giving them creative flexibility.

Here is a rough estimation of the Predator film timeline.

Title Year
Predator: Killer of Killers “The Shield” 841
Predator: Killer of Killers “The Sword” 1609
Prey 1719
Predator: Killer of Killers “The Bullet” 1942
Predator 1987
Predator 2 1997
Predator: Killer of Killers “The Battle” est. after 1997
Alien vs. Predator 2004
Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem 2004
Predators 2010
The Predator 2018
Prometheus 2093
Alien: Covenant 2104
Alien: Earth 2120
Alien 2122
Alien: Romulus 2142
Aliens 2179
Alien 3 2179
Predator: Badlands est. 2123 to 2318
Alien: Resurrection 2318

‘Predator: Badlands’ Might Build on the Franchise’s Two Most Controversial Entries


20th Century Fox

A new development with the film Predator: Badlands could potentially reconcile the Alien and Predator timelines, including the often-disregarded Alien vs. Predator movies. While the Predator films have subtly acknowledged the AVP films – for example, with a weapon made from a Xenomorph tail appearing in two Predator movies – the Alien films have largely ignored them, especially after Prometheus introduced story elements that seemed to make the AVP films impossible to fit into the established timeline. Recent changes to the Alien backstory, known as ‘retcons’, hinted at a way to make Prometheus and Alien vs. Predator coexist, potentially uniting the two franchises. Now, Predator: Badlands appears to be continuing a storyline left unfinished in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, which is often considered the weakest film in both series.

The movie Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem concludes with a Predator weapon falling into the hands of Ms. Yutani, a representative of the Yutani Corporation, before it merged with Weyland. This hinted at a potential sequel that never materialized, but suggested that Yutani’s acquisition of Predator technology could have been the reason the combined Weyland-Yutani Corporation began exploring space for alien life. However, instead of finding the Predators, they ultimately discovered the Xenomorphs.

In Alien: Earth, Sandra Yi Sencindiver plays the newest member of the Yutani family, who is the CEO of Weyland-Yutani in 2120. Meanwhile, Predator: Badlands reveals that the Weyland-Yutani corporation already knows about the Predators, referring to them by their true name instead of simply calling them ‘Predator’.

The 2018 film The Predator, like other less popular entries in the series, concluded with Rory McKenna (Jacob Tremblay) analyzing alien technology in a lab. Because Rory was able to understand the technology, it’s likely he could also translate the Predators’ language. Over the next century, governments and corporations like Weyland-Yutani learned about the Yautja (the Predators). They probably encountered them in space and began studying them, just as they did with the Xenomorphs. Predator: Badlands subtly builds on even the more overlooked films, like The Predator, to create a larger, connected story. It considers everything that came before as official canon, even without explicitly mentioning specific events or characters. You can see Predator: Badlands in theaters now.

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2025-11-07 23:08