Badlands' Makes Yautja Canon After 31 Years

2025 saw the release of not one, but two Predator titles. First was the animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers in June on Hulu, followed by the live-action theatrical release Predator: Badlands in November. It has been a big year for the Predator franchise, as both entries have earned some of the highest-rated reviews in the series’ history. Both titles are unique, as they finally bring a long-established species name, previously seen only in supplemental canon material, to the films: Yautja.

Predator: Killer of Killers was the first to introduce the name to the franchise, featuring the Yautja code at the beginning of the film. It also introduced audiences to Yautja Prime, the Predators’ homeworld, which had so far been glimpsed only briefly in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Predator: Badlands continues the tradition by having the name Yautja actually spoken in the movie, by the Predators identifying themselves by that species name, and by others, like the Weyland-Yutani corporation, knowing it as their designation.

Origins of the Term Yautja in the ‘Predator’ Franchise

The Predator in Predator Badlands holding something up off-screen

In both 1987’s Predator and its sequel, 1990’s Predator 2, the species was simply known to fans as the Predator. In the film’s world, the species was never named and was referred to as “the Hunter” or “alien.” In Predator, Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) calls the creature “El diablo que hace trofeos de los hombres.” This translates to “The demon who makes trophies of men.”

2018’s The Predator made the Predator moniker canon as the name the Stargazer Project gave the species. The movie even makes a meta-joke about how the moniker “Predator” doesn’t quite fit, since the species is said to have more in common with big-game hunters, but “Predator sounds cooler.”

The term Yautja did not enter the Predator franchise lexicon until seven years after the creature’s cinematic debut. In the 1994 novelization of the Alien vs. Predator comic, written by Steve Perry, the Predator species is classified as the Yautja. The name Yautja was typically used in the comics and among hardcore fans as the species name for the Predator, similar to how Aliens introduced the term Xenomorph to classify the creatures in the Alien franchise.

2006’s novel Predator: Forever Midnight by John Shirley also identified the Predator species as Hish-qu-Ten, which has since been established as being an ancestor race to the Yautja in the expanded material. This element has not been brought forward into the films. However, with both Predator: Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands expanding the Predator’s lore, including featuring the first on-screen reference to Yautja, this element could come into play in future films. Just as the word Ewok is never mentioned in Return of the Jedi, the name Yautja has long existed among Predator fans and is now being acknowledged in the films’ official mythology.

‘Predator: Badlands’ Identifying the Yautja Is a Big Deal

On the surface, Predator: Badlands naming the Yautja species doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is a major change to the franchise mythology and to how audiences will identify them. Even if Predator: Killer of Killers did it first, the fact that Predator: Badlands is a live-action theatrical movie means it might reach more people, and this previous deep-cut expanded universe lore is part of the mainstream. Everyone will still likely refer to them as Predators, but now, like Xenomorphs to Aliens, Yautja are part of the greater franchise mythology.

Predator: Badlands also establishes that the Yautja species are known by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Is this because they’ve encountered the species before? Is this building on the end of 2018’s The Predator, where humanity got the Predator Killer armor, and further study of the species made them one of the better-known alien lifeforms? Does this pick up the plasma canon plotline that the Yutani Corporation acquired in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem?

Now that the Yautja are identified and known to others in the film’s world, future films could explore their culture and society in sequels to Predator: Badlands and Predator: Killer of Killers. With 20th Century Fox implying a new Alien vs. Predator film is on the way, expect more about the Yautja to be revealed. Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.