In “Predator: Badlands,” diversity is the secret weapon

In placing his spin on the “Predator” universe, director Dan Trachtenberg has ushered in several crucial firsts. His 2022 debut, “Prey,” is the first major movie to feature a Native American woman, Amber Midthunder, as the lead in a film released with a Native American language overdub.

Trachtenberg’s “secret” follow-up that landed earlier this year, the animated “Predator: Killer of Killers,” is the first to provide a glimpse of the lethal alien race’s home world, Yautja Prime.

Now, nearly four decades after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commando Dutch Schaefer survived his encounter with a Yautja – long before anyone knew that’s what they were called – “Predator: Badlands” makes one of them the hero.

In this extraterrestrial warrior culture, one’s worthiness is defined by one’s ability to h