Badlands' Director Reveals Whether Film Takes Place in the Same Universe as 'Alien: Earth' Actorsvaultpro

Predator: Badlands recently arrived in theaters, adding an exciting chapter to the franchise that is connected to Alien, the sci-fi horror franchise created by Ridley Scott in 1979. Though the Alien vs. Predator films saw xenomorphs fighting the alien warriors, director Dan Trachtenberg‘s treatment for the link between the franchises appears to be more nuanced. The trailer had already revealed that the film takes place in a universe where Weyland-Yutani (the nefarious company behind “all things bad” in the Alien universe) still makes lifelike robots. However, now Trachtenberg confirms whether the movie has something that connects it to the 2025 TV series Alien: Earth, a bold spin on the Alien franchise that was divisive as well as impressive.

Trachtenberg was interviewed recently by Cinema Blend, and he reveals how his latest sequel connects to the recent Alien entries, Alien: Earth and Alien: Romulus. In terms of the TV show, Trachtenberg says that because of the different time periods, there’s no direct connection. However, he does say that Alien: Earth was strong enough to leave the door open for a future crossover:

“Noah reached out when he saw our trailer and was like, ‘Wait, you got Weyland-Yutani in your thing?’ And he sent me where they were at with the episodes of Alien: Earth at that point, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing,’ and assured him, ‘Don’t worry we’re way beyond. We are not really doing anything similar.’ So yeah, we don’t have much cause for specific collaboration because we’re in such different parts of the universe, but I’m certainly leaving things open to be included upon and ideas to be taken, if someone should want to.”

The Link Between ‘Predator: Badlands’ and ‘Alien: Romulus’

20th Century Studios

Although there’s no direct connection between the latest Predator movie and the Hulu series Alien: Earth, Trachtenberg did admit that he actually took something from the Alien sequel directed by Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus. It is a small detail that you’ll likely catch in a rewatch.

2024’s Alien: Romulus takes place in the year 2142, between Alien and Aliens. It is set long before the time period when Predator: Badlands takes place, and depicts a different era for the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Regardless, Trachtenberg took a technological detail and added it to the recently released film:

“Fede Álvarez and I are friends, but, ironically, I wasn’t really super aware of Romulus when we started making Badlands. And I was not aware at all of Alien: Earth. But I instinctually sort of set Badlands as far into the future as possible just to make sure I wasn’t going to step on anyone’s toes. I didn’t even really quite know that Romulus was actually so set in the past and in between films.

“But when I saw Romulus – I saw a little bit of an early cut, and then we all watched when we were down in New Zealand and we all watched as a crew. And the thing with the eyes, just having the ‘W’ in the whites when they roll back? Immediately it was like, ‘We got to use that.’ And there were so many places for it in our movie. So I was thrilled to be able to take that and run with it.”