Dan Trachtenberg worried "a little" about making Bud too cute in Predator: Badlands, but Marvel's Rocket and Groot convinced him she could be both "adorable and super badass"

Bud in Predator: Badlands — (Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Predator: Badlands is as much about misfits finding their chosen family as it is about blood-spilling butt-kicking, so it's no real surprise that director Dan Trachtenberg found inspiration in Guardians of the Galaxy. The Marvel movie didn't just inspire its themes and tones, though, it influenced the design of the sci-fi sequel's cutest character, Bud.

"The movie is very much about characters that appear to be one way, but then are actually quite different," Trachtenberg told Variety. "I thought about Rocket Raccoon or Groot – adorable, but also super badass. We're making a movie where the monster, predator, ugly mother****er is the protagonist. I did not think that should be the only crazy idea.

Starring Dimitirus Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning, Predator: Badlands follows Yautja "runt" Dek, who travels to Genna, otherwise known as 'the Death Planet', to take down the galaxy's most feared foe: the Kalisk. Many Yautja have died trying to make it their trophy but Dek is determined; not only to prove himself a worthy hunter but avenge his brother Kwei, who was executed by their ruthless, clan-leader father.

"There's always something really cool to me about the badass with the sidekick. It's something that makes us care in a very specific way. We care about creatures and animals very differently than we care about humans," added Trachtenberg. "I love the idea of him backpacking and something little beside him. I always have in my head one shot in The Monster Squad of all the kids with Frankenstein in the silhouette of the setting sun. Sometimes I think in that kind of iconography. So that informed it, too."