Badlands’ a Better, More Fun Ending

Yautja’s deck goes through a lot throughout time Hunter: Badlands, All this in the name of gaining recognition from his father Najohar. this creature Hunter, “Verification” actually means “trial by battle,” and the showdown between father and son at the end was almost more restrained than what we got on screen.

In the final cut of the film, the battle between the decks and Nazohar on Yautja Prime is really what drives them. But as two of Vegeta’s supervisors – Sheldon Stopsack for VFX, and Carl Rapley for animation – told Polygon, that confrontation was basically the same as a samurai movie. “The fathers would disappear, and the crowd would get faster as they ran toward each other,” Rapley explained. “Deck threw sand at dad, which exposed him, and then they crossed paths like a samurai standoff, and they went in opposite directions, and then dad’s hand dropped. So it was just a very quick exchange.”

After seeing the film, director Dan Trachtenberg approached Weta about doing a “big” sequence that would make it feel “more than a moment”. Predator: Badlands The stunt team came to New Zealand and created a brand new fight sequence, so Vegeta had to digitally create Yautja Prime, including the settlement of the Clan Guard deck and the geographical features of the planet. Using the original battle as a reference point, Rapley said the team used “extensive camera tricks” for the new sequence and created the sandstorm from scratch.

Stopsack felt that the sandstorm presented a “narrative point” of Deck defeating his father, and the idea behind it was sound. This could be a challenge, but he said the team was “excited” to tackle it and considered it “one of the more beautiful, fun aspects”. [of the film]’We don’t want to show them clearly,’ Dan told us, It wants to be dirtier and a little more gritty,’ I really appreciated it and agreed with it,”

With the lengthy battle, audiences get to see how Deck comes across as a hunter, and hopefully it will get them excited about where he’ll go next. No word yet on whether we’ll get a sequel or not Hunter: Badlands, But at the very least, it feels like the young Yautja have endeared themselves to each other enough that there’s hope there’s somewhere else to go.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.