Badlands’ Is a Huge Hulu Hit

Here’s some good news for Predator fans, especially those who’d love to see director Dan Trachtenberg keep making new films in the franchise. Predator: Badlands raked in nine million views in its first five days on Hulu—making it the top film premiere on the streamer since… well, Trachtenberg’s 2022 Predator movie, Prey.

Prey was released straight to Hulu, while Badlands had a theatrical run starting in November 2025. It became the highest-grossing Predator film before making its streaming debut last week.

According to a Disney press release, “Audiences have streamed more than 300 [million] hours of the Predator franchise on Disney+ and Hulu globally.” That includes another Trachtenberg creation, 2025’s straight-to-Hulu animated saga Predator: Killer of Killers, as well as the rest of the series to date.

Not bad for a franchise that kicked off in 1987 as an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle—then expanded its lore about alien killers who pride themselves on being the ultimate hunters with multiple sequels and crossovers with the Alien universe.

Badlands’ popularity in both the movie theater and in home release—not to mention the jolt of energy the franchise got from Prey—only strengthens the hope that Trachtenberg, who just signed a new deal with Paramount, will come back to Disney eventually to make another Predator film.

Speaking to io9 in an interview tied to Badlands’ Hulu release, Trachtenberg emphasized that his Paramount alliance doesn’t mean he won’t reunite with the Yautja at some point. In fact, it’s on his mind, and he’s looking forward to it, whenever it happens.

“I’m in this moment that I was in when Prey came out, where I was like, ‘What do I do next?’ and got very excited about a Predator protagonist and got very excited about an animated movie with multiple time periods, and then they just happened to go at the same time,” he said. “And so that’s where I’m at with Predator now, is, ‘Oh my God, there are so many exciting things we can do.’”

Clearly, the audience is there—and will happily follow Trachtenberg back into the fray.

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