To say that Judge Dredd fans were disappointed by Danny Cannon's Sylvester Stallone-fronted 1995 theatrical take on the character would be a massive understatement. The rest of the world wasn't too high on the film either, with critics of the time widely trashing it, and box office earnings barely managing to recoup its $90 million budget. Thus, Judge Dredd dropped out of the Hollywood spotlight just as quickly as the cult favorite comic character had entered it, seemingly never to be seen again.
That was until 2012, when director Pete Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland teamed up to create Dredd, an attempt at finally giving the character the big screen glory fans thought he deserved. On an artistic level, the Dredd team more than succeeded in that goal, earning rave reviews from critics and going on to establish a devoted cult following that has long-demanded a sequel. Unfortunately, while Dredd is now beloved, that didn't happen right away, as the film came up short of even making back its budget in theaters. With that in mind, studios have proved unwilling to fund a follow-up.
The one man perhaps more dedicated to making a Dredd sequel than anyone else is outspoken producer and YouTube personality Adi Shankar. Shankar - along with star Karl Urban - has publicly lobbied for a sequel on multiple occasions, but sadly, things have never managed to come together. However, during a recent interview with Collider, Shankar made it clear that he has in no way given up on making a Dredd 2, and that the film will happen at some point. The real question in Shankar's mind is whether such a sequel would be live-action or animated:
"If anyone is still wondering, there’s no update on a Dredd sequel, but I’m gonna make it happen at some point. It may not be live-action, but it’s going to happen at some point. There will be more Judge Dredd at some point."
It's not too surprising to learn that Shankar is considering an animated Dredd sequel, as back in 2014, he oversaw an animated web series entitled Judge Dredd: Superfiend. This project was made as part of Shankar's popular YouTube series of fan films he calls the Bootleg Universe. Interestingly, while Shankar says that that particular series is done, he heavily hinted that a Batman-based animated fan film project might soon be coming from the same crew that brought Superfiend to life.
While Dredd fans would obviously prefer a true live-action sequel to the 2012 film, that seems incredibly unlikely to actually happen, at least anytime in the foreseeable future. With that in mind, an animated Dredd 2 certainly wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, especially if Urban returns to voice the title character. As passionate as he's publicly been about making a sequel, one assumes it wouldn't take much prodding to get him on-board.
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Source: Collider