Why Dredd 2 Never Happened

Publish date: 2024-05-16

In spite of the movie's positive reception from fans, Dredd still hasn't received a sequel, but there's one other possibility for the future.

Summary

Although 2012’s Dredd was met fairly positively by fans across the world, the movie never received a sequel, and there’s a multitude of reasons for this. The movie, which features Karl Urban as a violent police officer in a dystopian world, might not have gathered the most critical acclaim, but general audiences seemed to really enjoy the project upon its release and expected it to spawn a franchise. Unfortunately for its fans, the idea of Dredd 2 never took off, and too much time has passed now for a sequel to really make any sense.

In Dredd, Urban’s title character investigates a brutal string of murders when he stumbles into the center of a dangerous drug operation that threatens to pull his entire operation apart. The movie is based on Judge Dredd, a hugely popular comic book character created in the ‘70s. He has appeared in a number of projects on-screen since then, and there was hope that Dredd could be the one to finally launch the character’s cinematic universe. However, while Dredd definitely deserves a sequel, the time for Dredd 2 has probably passed.

Dredd's Poor Box Office Stopped Plans For Dredd 2

The main contributor to Dredd’s inability to spawn a sequel was the poor box office reception to the original movie. Despite audiences enjoying the project, there simply wasn’t enough marketing or word-of-mouth to ensure that Dredd could become the blockbuster hit that it should have been. The film only grossed $41 million worldwide, which is much less than it would have needed to actually make a decent profit and secure a sequel (via Box Office Mojo).

Although Dredd suffered at the box office, fans made their voices heard and campaigned for the sequel to be made. Over 80,000 people signed an official petition asking for Dredd 2, with lead star Karl Urban also voicing his encouragement and admitting that he’d love to be involved. The campaign ultimately led nowhere and didn’t result in any news, but it proved that Dredd 2 would be able to easily get people into theaters to watch it.

Why A Judge Dredd TV Show Can Still Happen

While Dredd 2 isn’t going to happen any time soon, a television adaptation of the comic book character is definitely still possible. There’s been talk of a Dredd TV series for years now, and with Urban’s involvement in the previous fan campaign, it’s likely that he’d be willing to return under the right conditions. There was even an unofficial show released on YouTube in 2014, proving even further that an audience already exists for a Dredd sequel or TV show if the producers ever want to return to that story.

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