Since 1987, the “Predator” film franchise has been synonymous with heat visions from the perspective of members of the titular alien race, the Yautja, surveying their surroundings until three tiny, terrifying dots find their target. It’s just a shame the “Predator: Badlands” star didn’t have access to this nifty thermal vision during filming. On the contrary, it turns out that the human who plays the film’s leader couldn’t see anything behind those mandibles.
In an interview with SFX, “Badlands” actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi — who plays Yautja warrior Dek in the film — revealed that taking on the role of one of the coolest hunters in the galaxy has its downsides. The first problem was the Yautja costume, which was so painful to wear that he thinks he “lost maybe close to 30 pounds” during filming. “You’re constantly sweating all the time,” he explained, adding, “But on top of the costume, I had to wear contact lenses, the Predator lenses, and those blurred my vision.” This meant that 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 shot, we would block without the contacts first, just so I could get through it and see where I needed to be,” he continued. From there, the actor was on his own to do the film’s particular Yautja design work (joining the ranks of the other ugly space mother – well, you know). “Once the contacts were made, it was just a case of, ‘Try to do it the best you can, like we kept saying, and just try to find your target to achieve your goals,’” he recalls.
Koloamatangi’s difficulty seeing fueled his predator’s fire
It’s nothing new for a Predator to have to operate blind. In fact, it’s often the only chink in these space beasts’ armor that their designated prey can use to their advantage. In Koloamatangi’s case, he used his own lemon to make lemonade, albeit in a somewhat unconventional way. “I used all of these obstacles to become a little more of my character. My character in the movie has some drawbacks of his own,” the actor teased, referring to how young Dek manages to go it alone on one of the deadliest planets in the universe. “So using certain things helped me ground the character in a little bit of authenticity and make it real.”
But more importantly, Koloamatangi acknowledged that he was following in the fierce footsteps of many other stars who had donned those ridiculously cool face plates as Predators in the past: “But what helped me was knowing that everyone who played the Predator had experienced something like that. Accepting the role of playing that character, you know what that entails. So accepting it early and then moving on really helped me.”
While Koloamatangi might join a deadly bloodline, “Predator: Badlands” will change things up by making its main Predator the protagonist this time around. Not only that, but Dek is also accompanied in the film by Thia (Elle Fanning), a slightly more tired android. You can find out how they both handle the hunt when “Predator: Badlands” arrives in theaters on November 7, 2025.
