Friday at San Diego Comic-Con offered fans a rare opportunity to hear from two of the people primarily responsible for major franchises, in the same place, on the same day. And that’s exactly what happened in both the Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands panels, which both took place in Hall H.

Badlands is mostly revealed in the latest action-packed trailer, but an increasingly popular theory indicates that the movie could actually be a stealth reboot of the Alien vs. Predator franchise cross-over.

The Predator franchise has made a roaring comeback in the last few years – largely thanks to the efforts of filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, who surprised everyone with his Predator prequel film Prey in 2022.

Dan Trachtenberg finally gets the Comic-Con he dreamt of when he was a young fan. Disney was in full on show, don’t tell mode for Predator: Badlands, unveiling the intense first 15 minutes of the upcoming sci-fi adventure movie for a primed Comic-Con crowd.

The Predator and Alien franchises have seen a bit of a renaissance thanks to a trio of well-received projects on the big and small screen, including Prey, Alien Romulus, and Predator: Killer of Killers.

Predator: Badlands centers on Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young-and-hungry Yautja warrior who is the runt of the litter in his clan and has a whole lot to prove. He teams up with an unlikely ally: Thia ( Elle Fanning ), a synthetic made by the Weyland-Yutani company (from the Alien franchise).

"Predator: Badlands" director Dan Trachtenberg debuted 15 minutes of footage at Comic-Con, plus hinted at a possible Arnold Schwarzenegger return.