Over 20 years after the Xenomorph and the Yautja did battle up on the big screen in mashup fight film Alien vs. Predator, director Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands once again unites the now Disney-owned Alien and Predator franchises. The connection is a bit more subtle this time, however, with Badlands taking place in a world where the Weyland-Yutani corporation very much exists. The Predator’s sidekick in the film, Elle Fanning’s Thia, is a Weyland-Yutani synth, suggesting that we could someday see Dek do battle with a Xenomorph.

But where does Badlands take place in the Alien and Predator timelines? And was the film intended to directly link to recent Alien projects like Alien: Romulus and “Alien: Earth”?

As Trachtenberg explains to Variety, he intentionally avoided stepping into a timeline mess.

He explains, “Very intentionally, it is the furthest into the future in both Predator and Alien. When we were making [Predator: Badlands], I wasn’t really sure what was going on with Alien: Romulus and I don’t even know how aware I even was of Alien: Earth.”

“So I just didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” Trachtenberg continues. “I wanted to make sure we were doing our own thing, and selfishly, I’d also done so much Predator in different time periods that I was excited for this to be in the future, even past Alien: Resurrection.”

Alien: Resurrection was set 200 years after Ellen Ripley’s death in Alien 3, with the Alien Anthology Wiki estimating that the 1997 movie took place in 2381. It was the most futuristic film in either saga prior to Predator: Badlands, and Trachtenberg’s comments make it clear that Badlands is taking place far beyond 2381. The exact year, however, is unknown at this time.

Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, meanwhile, was set 20 years after the original Alien, while Noah Hawley’s television series “Alien: Earth” plays out some time before the original Alien. These things get more complex the more you start diving in, but Ridley Scott’s original classic is believed to be roughly set in 2122, with Alien: Romulus in 2142 and “Alien: Earth” in 2092.

Trachtenberg’s decision to set Predator: Badlands in an unclear timeline far beyond the events of any films in the Alien or Predator franchises was a smart way of avoiding any timeline problems or conflicting with anything that’s going on with the Alien franchise at the moment. All you need to know is that Xenomorphs very much exist in the world of Predator: Badlands.

Makes you wonder which planet Dek and his gang are headed to next, doesn’t it?

‘Alien: Resurrection’