Director Dan Trachtenberg has asserted himself as the Predator whisperer. In the span of three years, he’s delivered the raved-about prequel film “Prey,” the wild animated anthology “Predator: Killer of Killers,” and, most recently, the big blockbuster “Predator: Badlands.” The latter takes place in the far distant future, further than any other “Predator” or “Alien” movie on the timeline, and centers on Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young, runt Yautja who is cast out of his clan and seeks to prove himself on a hostile planet. Trachtenberg, however, was originally going to make things even harder on Dek.
During an interview with BAFTA, Trachtenberg revealed that Dek was initially supposed to be blind in “Badlands.” Obviously, that would’ve made things all the more difficult for Dek on his quest for vengeance against his cruel dad, even with the help of Elle Fanning’s android Thia.
“The first instinct that we have initial treatments of was always that he was gonna be the runt of the litter. But he was, and I cannot believe that I’m just now remembering this, he was blind,” Trachtenberg explained. The director then went on to discuss the origins of this bold idea and how it would have changed the movie:
“I was sort of thinking of ‘Blind Fury’ or ‘Book of Eli’ and the blind Samurai. Or Daredevil, even. Though he was blind and seen as the runt, he developed extrasensory things. I even have pre-vis for some of this stuff, he had a mask that was just over his eyes. It wasn’t covering his full face, and it allowed him to use echolocation. It allowed him to use the clicks to ‘see,’ so to speak, where things were. He was gonna lose that mask and have to overcome that.”
Why Dek wasn’t blind in the final version of Predator: Badlands
Trachtenberg has strayed at every turn from doing the obvious thing with the “Predator” franchise. A “Prey” sequel would have been a safer bet, but he chose to direct “Badlands” instead. That’s paid off handsomely, too, as the movie has been met with generally rave reviews, on top of exceeding expectations at the box office on opening weekend. But as the director further explained, this plan to make Dek blind might have been one step too far for the story he wanted to tell:
“I started to realize, I love it when the audience feels linked to the main character and we’re going to this new planet. To take advantage of that characteristic of his, I felt compelled as I was sort of coming up with how we would shoot certain things, to do stuff that would make you feel like you’re not seeing also what he’s not seeing. But that was really fighting against, we’re going to this new crazy planet together, and then we’re not going to be able to experience it and see it.”
“That forced us to start to think of, ‘Okay, what if it’s not the blind thing?,” Trachtenberg concluded. “Then it really just became size and stature in the clan.”
The good news is that this idea of a blind Predator doesn’t have to stay dead forever. Trachtenberg has already set up more installments in his “Predator” universe, meaning he could always pull this idea out of the drawer and apply it to another character down the road. It’s an interesting, new concept within the scope of this franchise; it just didn’t ultimately suit the specifics of this particular film.
“Predator: Badlands” is in theaters now.
