In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Dan Trachtenberg announced that a Yautja will be the protagonist in the upcoming film Predator: Badlands. This is a concept that has worked quite successfully in the predator novels published by Titan Books and in the comics from Dark Horse Comics and Marvel; but film-makers have been less excited about the idea, fearing that audiences would have a difficult time related to a non-human protagonist. Thankfully Dan Trachtenberg has been given the green light by the powers that be after the success of his 2022 film Prey.
But would such a concept work for an Alien film?
The idea has been explored far less often in the Alien storytelling universe. There are some instances of success, however. Alien: Prototype, a 2019 novel by Tim Waggoner, has whole sections of the novel dedicated to the Xenomorph’s perspective, which works well via this medium as it gives readers a chance to experience the creature’s instinctual drives to kill and to reproduce, and the competing nature of these desires. But this narrative strategy wouldn’t really work in the medium of film; at least, it would be very difficult to pull off.
More familiar to Alien fans is the single-player campaign for the Xenomorph in Alien vs. Predator (2010). In this video game, players control Specimen 6, a Xenomorph trapped inside a Weyland-Yutani experimental lab. Specimen 6 escapes from the lab, fights and kills two Yautja, manages to capture the scientist that had been experimenting on it, and eventually evolves into a Praetorian, then Queen when the previous Matriarch is killed by a Colonial Marine.
Perhaps by using humans as the guardrails for the scenes, providing the talking and narrative context, such a story could be told on the big screen. It could also provide a welcome opportunity for the Colonial Marines to return without making them the focus of the film.
Of course, such a story runs the risk of feeling like a gimmick and tarnishing the Alien brand, which has been known for high intellectual storytelling and serious horror.
Tell us what you think! Could the Alien franchise pull off a film with a Xenomorph as protagonist, similar to Predator: Badlands? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.
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