Dredd update: Karl Urban keen to do streaming series

While Dredd 2 isn’t officially moving ahead just yet as the IP largely remains dormant, Karl Urban has assured fans his door is always open for any opportunity to wear the iconic helmet once again, even if it’s in a streaming series rather than a movie.

When Dredd made its debut in 2012, the brutal, Karl Urban-led take on the comic book character failed to make much of an impact at the box office. Taking home a little over $40 million, just under its reported budget, plans for a trilogy were quickly scrapped and the series has remained mostly silent ever since.

Despite its initial shortcomings, however, the film has gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic, only growing in popularity in the 11 years following its release. As a result, the conversation surrounding Dredd has never truly died down. We’ve heard all sorts of rumblings, sequel rumors, and even the formal announcement of the television series Mega-City One in 2017, though it’s still yet to get off the ground six years later.

So while fans of the franchise anxiously await any scrap of information on a potential comeback, it’s been a trying decade to say the least. Though at a recent panel at Supanova Melbourne, Dredd himself, Karl Urban, gave those fans a new update, assuring he’s still very much eager to don the helmet and enforce some justice whenever the opportunity should arise.

“Plans for a sequel…” Urban said at the panel Dexerto attended, to which those words alone resulted in rapturous applause from the crowd. “You know, I would love to make another one. I’ve gone on the record for years saying I’m definitely down to do it.”

For the time being, however, no concrete plans are in motion, he explained. With much of Urban’s time of late spent as Billy Butcher in Amazon’s hit series The Boys, a Dredd return hasn’t been at the forefront of his mind. But it’s a role he’s always open to making the time for, should a new project get off the ground after all these years.

“I would just love to see more Judge Dredd. There are so many wonderful stories that John Wagner wrote, it would be a shame not to see those come on the screen. I think it’s particularly more relevant today when you look at the political landscape of the United States. If you know Dredd and know the backstory, it sort of was quite prophetic considering it was written in the 70s.”

“In many ways, I think that movie was quite ahead of its time,” Urban continued. “An R-rated, action-hero genre movie, it came out before Deadpool, it was just a shame it didn’t quite connect at the box office.

Though given the current climate, with many adult-oriented projects of a similarly violent nature going on to immense success both on streaming platforms and at the box office, he believed Dredd would have been a considerably bigger hit, had it been released now.

“It would be a different story if it was released today. I would love to do a limited series on some streaming service, that would be awesome, so we’ll see. The ball’s in the court of those folks that have the rights. But like you, I just want to see more.”