Whilst the 2012 Judge Dredd reboot (simply titled Dredd) was warmly received by its many fans (and us, as our review attests), there simply wasn’t enough of an interest at the Box Office to secure a sequel right away, and despite numerous online campaigns and constant questioning attempting to get a new Dredd up and running, there’s been little solid movement; although Dredd himself (better known in the real world as Karl Urban) recently stated a new Dredd is “a definite possibility.”
Speaking at the Chicago Comic-Con Urban, the square-jawed hero of the film, and the biggest supporter of making a follow-up, has said that conversations have been taking place about the future of the potential franchise, and that now the next film could be a prequel; “it’s more likely that we’ll do the Origins story, with Dredd trekking through the Cursed Earth to find the first Chief Judge Fargo.”
For those who don’t know, Dredd was based on the character Judge Dredd, from the British 2000AD comics, set in a futuristic world where most of the surface of the Earth has become a desolate wasteland, and a hugely overpopulated society is forced to live in giant cities (known as Mega-City One, Mega City-Two, etc.) where crime runs rampant and a new law enforcement agency (the Judges) is created in order to stem the chaos; with each Judge, acting as judge, jury, and executioner, and Judge Dredd being both the most feared, and respected, of all the Judges. The Origins tale referred to a 23 instalment run of comics which involved Dredd heading out into the Cursed Earth (the desert wasteland covering most of the Earth) in order to retrieve the stasis pod of Chief Judge Fargo (played by Max Von Sydow in Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd), and even included his brother Rico (played by Arman Assante in Stallone’s 1995 effort).
Still, at the moment it’s all just speculation, and fan-fantasies as nothing official has been announced, and the only official continuation of that same Dredd universe rests in the hands of the sequel comic titled Dredd: Underbelly (available as part of the long-running Judge Dredd Megazine).
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: Movieweb.
