Predator: Badlands Director Confirms the Whole Predator Carrying an Android Idea Was Inspired by Chewbacca Carrying C-3PO in Star Wars | SDCC 2025

If you’ve seen The Empire Strikes Back, you’ll probably remember Chewbacca carrying C-3PO in pieces on his back during the escape from Cloud City scene. It’s a scene that has gone on to be featured in various merchandise and even the LEGO Star Wars games. Now, it has become the unlikely inspiration behind the central idea of the upcoming Predator: Badlands movie.

In Predator: Badlands, Elle Fanning’s Thia strikes up an alliance with Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi’s young Predator, Dek. We see Thia rebooted after what looks like a fight with some sort of monster. Thia is a Weyland-Yutani synth from the nefarious megacorp from the Alien franchise.

The problem is, Thia has been cut in half, and her torso must be carried by the Yautja on his back as he seeks out what is described as “a creature that can’t be killed” and “the definitive apex predator.” Predator: Badlands’ working title, Backpack, makes a lot more sense now.

It turns out, the Predator carrying a synth idea was directly inspired by Star Wars. In an interview with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Predator director Dan Trachtenberg confirmed the link, saying: “That was the initial inspiration for it.”

Star Wars, however, wasn’t the only inspiration. In prior interviews Trachtenberg has mentioned masterpiece Shadow of the Colossus as inspiring Predator: Badlands, but it turns out there are many other games that factored into the film’s companion mechanic, including Half-Life 2, Uncharted, and God of War.