Carl explores the potential return of Judge Dredd in an all-new TV series
Those of us who adored the ‘Dredd‘ movie that starred Karl Urban back in 2012 will understand the excitement that ANY news of a continuation of the character will bring. For years, there have been many calls to get a second movie made. Urban himself signed up to the campaign to get ‘Dredd 2‘ made but sadly, it looked like all our hopes for Urban to be given the chance to return to the role were going to be dashed.
Until now. For a few years, there has been talk of a TV show for the main man in Mega-City One, one which will continue on from the movie. The show was rumored to be called ‘Judge Dredd: Mega-City One‘ but despite all the rumors and noises, nothing has been forthcoming. But now, the CEO of Rebellion, which currently holds the rights to the property, Jason Kingsley, has given us hope once more. When he joined in on the V2A Emergency Channel Broadcast System YouTube Channel, Kingsley announced:
“I want there to be a sequel (to the 2012 movie DREDD). We’ve got the rights back so we can do it, we’ve just got to get rid of this virus thing that’s going on at the moment, and then hopefully things can kick off in all sorts of different areas of making film and TV, it’s just, it’s all very messed up at the moment for everybody. A lot of work has been done on all sorts of different scripts actually. So Mega-City One the TV show. Basically, we can’t go into production because of the (situation) and we’ve got scripts and everything is ready to go but the problem is, because of the (situation) and everybody’s funding changes and everybody’s shifting around”
Rebellion and Karl Urban have been in talks about the actor reprising the role he played to perfection in the 2012 film but nothing is set in stone or has been agreed as of yet. Urban is currently starring in ‘The Boys‘ for Amazon Prime so his participation would depend on his busy schedule. Also, actress Olivia Thirlby’s participation hasn’t been confirmed or denied yet as to whether she would be open and available to return as Judge Anderson in the show. However, Kingsley did tease the possibility of Sylvester Stallone appearing in the show. Stallone starred as Dredd in an ill-fated and critically derided version of the 2000AD character in 1995. Kingsley said:
“Well if we can get people back, you know, we even joked that it would be quite fun to get Stallone back”
I’m all for a television version of Dredd just as long as it is in the same vein and tone as the 2012 film. HBO, Amazon Prime, and Netflix for example would make the show accurately, violent, disturbing, and brutal, the way the character should be played. Urban nailed the role whereas Stallone turned the character into something that resembled a vehicle for the actor and was so far off the mark, it was little wonder that the film flopped so badly as it did. I must admit though, that the chance of seeing Urban and Stallone in a Dredd show together is extremely interesting and is something I’d be all for. My suggestion would be Urban as Dredd while Stallone could play Judge Death. That would be something to see. Whether or not this pans out remains to be seen but with this small tidbit of news, fans of Judge Dredd might just might, have reason to celebrate.
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Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
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(Source: V2A Emergency Broadcast System)
Author
Carl Roberts is the News Editor of The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
