Badlands: Elle Fanning is in talks to star in the new standalone Predator film from Prey's Dan Trachtenberg (2024)

Elle Fanning (The Great, The Neon Demon, Super 8) could be trading her bustle for survival gear after being in talks to join the cast of Dan Trachtenberg’s standalone Predator film Badlands. Deadline says Fanning is negotiating for the role in the highly anticipated film, which Trachtenberg is directing and co-writing with Patrick Aison.

Anticipation for Trachtenberg’s Prey follow-up is through the roof. Prey was a surprise smash hit of 2022, with Trachtenberg and star Amber Midthunder arguably delivering the best Predator movie since the 1987 classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Plot details for Badlands remain a mystery, as do the film’s release plans. Prey premiered exclusively on Hulu to record numbers during the pandemic. However, 20th Century Studios is going hard in the paint with its extraterrestrial action flicks and the upcoming Alien: Romulus coming to theaters. It would not be surprising to see Badlands debuting on the silver screen alongside the Xenomorph threat.

In addition to Elle Fanning possibly joining the cast of Badlands, a new Alien game called Alien Rogue Incursion was previewed at Sony Playstation’s latest State of Play presentation. The single-player action game launches during the 2024 Holiday window on Steram, the PlayStation VR2, and Meta Quest 3. The VR-based first-person shooter finds players hunted by a vicious Xenomorph in a claustrophobic environment on Purdan. Players use pulse rifles and other iconic weapons to survive the onslaught, with Xenomorphs spawning in the shadows, looking to make a meal out of anyone dumb enough to stand in their way.

Speaking of video games, Elle Fanning stars in Hideo Kojima’s upcoming sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. She joins Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Troy Baker, Shioli Kutsuna, Jonathan Roumie, Kevin Ko, Krishna Kumar, Marty Rhone, and Joseph Anthony DePronio II for the anticipated, narratively-baffling follow-up to the 2019 original.

Meanwhile, Elle Fanning is currently filming Going Electric for director James Mangold. The story revolves around the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, where a young Bob Dylan shakes up his act on the folk music scene by going electric and siring rock as the voice of a generation.

Are you excited about Elle Fanning joining the cast of Dan Trachtenberg’s Badlands? Let us know in the comments section below.

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He's also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You'll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.