This past weekend, 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands opened at No. 1 at the global box office with an estimated $80 million, delivering the strongest global opening in the Predator franchise’s nearly 40-year history. To help bring writer/director Dan Trachtenberg’s vision to life, the filmmakers turned to the most trusted source: the Walt Disney Archives.
“This year, 20th Century Studios just celebrated its 90th anniversary. That’s many decades of film history, and the Walt Disney Archives is so proud to steward that collection,” Cesar Gallegos, Senior Manager of Collections & Preservation at the Walt Disney Archives, said in the video (below). “Our mission at the Walt Disney Archives is to preserve the rich history of this amazing company. We ensure that our history is protected and used for inspiration.”
When The Walt Disney Company acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, it also acquired the company’s vast archives, which included artifacts, costumes, masks, weaponry, and other iconic props seen in the Predator franchise, from Predator (1987) through The Predator (2018). So, before production began on Predator: Badlands (now in theaters), producer Ben Rosenblatt, creature designer Alec Gillis, and others mined the Archives for inspiration.
“We definitely used the Archives as a resource to be able to access whatever has been kept from those previous films,” said Rosenblatt, who also produced Prey (2022). “The team at the [Walt] Disney Archives has done a really great job and has always been at our disposal, should we request anything. We used all resources available to us from the past to influence the future.”
Predator: Badlands is now playing exclusively in theaters in IMAX®, Dolby® Cinema, RealD (3D), Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens. The previous chapters in the Predator franchise — from 1987’s Predator to 2025’s Predator: Killer of Killers — are now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for U.S. bundle subscribers.