The latest movie in the "Predator" series flips the script to focus on the bad guys who always lose to the humans in the end, director Dan Trachtenberg said on Friday.
"The predator never wins," Trachtenberg told an audience at San Diego Comic-Con after footage of "Predator: Badlands" debuted at the convention's Disney panel.
This, the "Prey" director said, inspired him to tell the story from the predator species perspective in "Badlands," the seventh in the main movie series, dating back to the 1987 hit starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the ninth across the franchise.
It was key, Trachtenberg said, for him to explore a different aspect of the "Predator" world for this science fiction movie, developed by 20th Century Studios and landing in theaters on November 7.
"There are no humans in this film," said cast member Elle Fanning, discussing the challenges of learning the logistics of a completely fictional realm.
The biggest challenge was mastering the fictional Yautja language, said Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who stars as Dek, a young predator on a solo mission in a treacherous land of even bigger predators. He bonds with an android named Thia, played by Fanning.
Dek is "ferocious and badass, very much an anti-hero," Trachtenberg said.
Before the panel discussion with the director and several cast members, the audience got a glimpse of a Yautja-speaking predator prowling the stage with the signature glowing weaponry as stirring music played.
