Elle Fanning Pulls Double Duty in ‘Predator: Badlands’

The Predator: Badlands teaser trailer dropped a major reveal — Elle Fanning’s character, Thia, is a Weyland-Yutani synthetic. But that’s only half the story.

Empire Magazine has confirmed that Fanning will portray two characters in Dan Trachtenberg’s upcoming sequel to Prey. While Thia’s role is already taking shape, details about her second character — including the name — are still under wraps.

Set on a distant planet, Badlands follows a young, exiled Predator who forms an unlikely alliance with Thia as they search for the ultimate foe. Fanning’s Thia is described as the emotional and energetic counterbalance to the stoic Yautja warrior.

Trachtenberg drew inspiration from video games like Shadow of the Colossus for their dynamic: “There’s a thing with a horse in Shadow of the Colossus that’s devastating… I wanted to see the Predator with someone opposite him. He’s laconic — she’s not. She’s capable in ways he isn’t.”

While fans have speculated whether Fanning’s second role is also synthetic, Trachtenberg confirmed it: “I always wanted no humans in this movie,” he told Empire. “So I thought it might be fun to have the Predator with a robot. Then I thought, ‘I know a company that makes robots…’”

Fanning stars alongside Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the lead, Dek. Trachtenberg directs from a script he co-wrote with Prey collaborator Patrick Aison.

Predator: Badlands opens in theaters November 7, 2025.