One Predator: Badlands Star Had To Perform Their Scenes Essentially Blind

Since 1987, the "Predator" film franchise has been synonymous with heat vision shots from the perspective of members of the titular alien race, the Yautja, surveying their surroundings until three terrifying tiny dots find their target. It's just too bad the star of "Predator: Badlands" didn't have access to any of that nifty heat vision during filming. Rather, it turns out the human playing the movie's fanged frontman couldn't see a thing behind those mandibles.

In an interview with SFX, "Badlands" actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi — who plays the Yautja warrior Dek in the film — revealed that taking on the role of one of the galaxy's coolest hunters has its downsides. The first issue was the Yautja suit, which was so strenuous to wear that he thinks he "lost maybe close to 15 kilograms" during filming. "You're just constantly sweating the whole time," he explained, adding, "But along with the costume I had to wear contact lenses, the Predator contacts, and those blurred my vision." This meant the actor's scenes had to be precisely blocked in advance. That way, when the cameras started rolling, he wasn't going in completely (and literally) blind.

"So, before we would shoot, we would block first without the contacts, just so I could step it through and see where I needed to be," he continued. From there, the actor was on his own to make the film's particular Yautja design work (joining the ranks of space's other ugly mother — well, you know). "Once the contacts got on, it was just 'Try and do it as well as you can, like we rehearsed, and just try and find your mark to hit your marks,'" he recalled.

It's nothing new for a Predator to have to operate blindly. In fact, it's often the solitary chink in these space-beasties' armor that their intended prey can use to their advantage. In Koloamatangi's case, he used his own lemon to make lemonade, albeit in a somewhat unconventional fashion. "I used all of these obstacles as ways to become my character a little bit more. My character in the film has a few disadvantages of his own," the actor teased, hinting at the ways that young Dek manages to go it alone on one of the deadliest planets in the universe. "So, using those certain things helped me ground the character in a bit of authenticity and just make it real."

More importantly, though, Koloamatangi acknowledged that he was following in the ferocious footsteps of plenty of other stars who had donned those ridiculously cool face plates as Predators in the past: "But what helped was knowing that everyone who's played the Predator has gone through something like this. Accepting the role to play this character, you know what it comes with. So, accepting it early and then just going with it really helped me."

While Koloamatangi might be joining a lethal lineage, "Predator: Badlands" will change things up by making its primary Predator the protagonist this time around. Not only that, but Dek is also accompanied in the movie by Thia (Elle Fanning), an android who's a little worse for wear. You can find out how both of them handle the hunt when "Predator: Badlands" arrives in theaters on November 7, 2025.