Shane Black heaps praise on Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg for saving the series

Shane Black thinks Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg is the "right shepherd" to lead the Predator franchise.

Trachtenberg, 44, has so far helmed 2022's Prey, the lauded Hulu show Predator: Killer of Killers and the upcoming Predator: Badlands, and Black – who directed the controversial 2018 reboot The Predator – has now said he thinks the filmmaker's work in the sci-fi series is "impeccable".

The Play Dirty director, 63, told The Hollywood Reporter: "His work is impeccable. I saw Prey, and all I could do was say, 'Sir, my hat’s off. [It] was a really great mythic take.'

"I feel like an audience member now, and I’m just happy to see whatever he does. So, yeah, I’m happy that the franchise is still humming, and he’s the right shepherd for it."

The Predator series started with the 1987 eponymous movie, which followed Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team of soldiers who are sent to rescue a group of U.S. politicians trapped in Guatemala.

However, things get complicated when the crew realise they are being hunted by a hulking, brutal creature.

Although Schwarzenegger, hasn't played Dutch in the Predator series since the first film, Trachtenberg recently teased the 78-year-old actor is "excited to talk about what else we could do" with the character after Dutch cameoed in Predator: Killer of Killers.

The director told Empire magazine: "I met Arnold, and he said, ‘You’d think I get, ‘l’ll be back,’ yelled at me most, but it’s actually, ‘Get to the chopper!’

"So, he’s well aware of the franchise’s staying power. He was excited to talk about what else we could do."

In the show, Dutch’s frozen body appears next to Prey protagonist Naru’s - as played by Amber Midthunder in the 2022 flick.

Following this reveal, Trachtenberg said "there’s so much story to tell now" with Dutch and Naru.

He teased: "You could tell how [Dutch and Naru] were captured, or what happens when they’re de-iced. Many possibilities.”

Trachtenberg’s next project is Predator: Badlands, which will hit cinemas on November 7, 2025.

The upcoming blockbuster follows young hunter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he has been cast out of his clan and sent to a remote planet, where he forms an unlikely alliance with Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning) as the pair search for the ultimate adversary.

The filmmaker had said he wanted to make a movie "that hadn’t existed before" with Predator: Badlands.

Speaking about creating the film, he explained: "You immediately think: Prey 2.

"But with sequels, people sometimes get so caught up going, 'This could happen next,' they never stop to think, 'Should it happen next?’'

"Prey was special because it was this big idea that hadn’t existed before. I wanted the next thing to be that, too."

Trachtenberg said Predator: Badlands would be a “kind of buddy-comedy” with Dek and Thia - a biomechanical humanoid.

He said: "In general, I’m always looking for: what could happen only in this movie? Prey was a solo survival tale; this is a relationship story."