Here’s a look at what the ending of Predator: Badlands could have been like. At the end of the film, Tessa attacks Dek in an enormous Power Loader suit. Dek tries to scramble out of the way and manages to hold out long enough for the Kalisk to join in the battle. Thia’s role in the final fight is limited to freeing the Kalisk.
Ukrainian concept artist Roman Chaliy has shared some of the concepts he did for Predator: Badlands and reveals a very different ending. The concepts show that Dek and Thia were battling the Power Loader on two different beasts that they bonded with on the planet. Dek’s beast looks a little similar to a Velociraptor except much bigger, while Thia’s beast has antlers/tusks. Dek is wielding a makeshift bow that can fire flaming arrows, while Thia has a swinging flame rope. We can see below the Power Loader surrounded by flames in a forest.
In the third concept, Dek is clutching Bud and a spear with a very different version of Thia on his back, while he flees the Power Loader. This concept art must be based on a very early version of the script before they knew actress Elle Fanning had gotten the part as Thia. All the concepts do indicate that in this version, Thia doesn’t find her missing legs.
In the fourth concept art, Thia, Dek and Bud are sitting around a campfire. In both this image and the previous one, it looks like Dek took a more feline appearance than what ended up in the film.
Roman Chaliy is relatively new to the industry, although he does have some prior experience with Predator. He previously provided some concept art for Dan Trachtenberg’s previous Predator film, Prey. Chaliy also contributed some concept art for Nickelodeon’s Star Trek: Prodigy.
In related news, Sean Hargreaves, another concept artist on Predator: Badlands, has begun sharing lots of his work from the film, ranging from concepts for the Predator ship and lots of Nostromo-inspired corridors.
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Born from animal/found adult in order not to alienate viewers and then will fight to WY jerks. Some android will help along the way.
So Alien Earth?
I just noticed that the last concept art was probably made when Dek was supposed to be blind, cause he's wearing a bandana over his eyes.
This makes me wonder why they went with putting Dek in a potato sack.
I don't think it's an unreasonable assessment of a) the storyline, and b) individual elements of the visual language, but the way they're all brought together isn't something we'd seen before on the screen. When I walked out after seeing the first one, it just felt like I'd watched a Halo vs Warcraft cutscene for 3 hours, with Pocahontas meets Fern Gully as the storyline.
No idea whether that holds true for the sequels, as I've never been inspired to watch more, but I digress.
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I just like that we seem to be able to point as something and distinctly point to "Avatar influence," meaning that we are well past the absurd "Avatar is derivative and has no cultural impact of its own" meme that annoyingly plagued the internet for a decade or so after 2009.
Come on, if you showed that top image to someone without explanation and asked them which sci-fi franchise it came from, what do you think they'd say? I guarantee Avatar would rank a lot higher than Predator.
The way Dan talked about meeting Cameron implied that it was coincidental, since they were both working with Wētā, so I don't think he thought that he was stepping on his toes.
I was thinking these dudes from Riddick, but I do see that as well.
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Also, yeah, there is a lot of Avatar in these pieces. This art rocks. There's a cool 3D rendering of the Power Loader in the link, too.
I was about to say, seeing these makes me wonder whether that visit to Cameron may have been to get his blessing before potentially stepping on his toes.
Also, Bud in the third picture is cat coded.