When Dan Trachtenberg set out to make Predator: Badlands, he already knew the film would push the long-running sci-fi franchise into new territory. The movie centers on the Predator itself, a Yautja runt named Dek, and blends monster-hunting action with a darker fantasy adventure tone. But according to the director, a Star Wars comparison made him a little wary of one specific character.
Per Empire, Trachtenberg explained that the concern came during the editing process, when a comparison to a famously divisive Star Wars character popped up. Alongside Dek’s journey to hunt the seemingly unstoppable creature Kallisk, he and Elle Fanning’s character, Thia, encounter a small alien companion they nickname Bud. The creature is designed to be cute, tough, and unexpectedly endearing, adding a different kind of energy to the otherwise brutal Predator universe. But during post-production, Trachtenberg’s editor raised a potential issue:
