The arrival of the 2012 Dredd feature film (also known as Dredd 3D) starring Karl Urban as the titular title character, Judge Dredd, put a bullet in the memory of the disastrous 1995 Judge Dredd feature film starring Sylvester Stallone. Directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point) from a screenplay by producer Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Dredd was a much more faithful and enjoyable adaptation for fans of the character's decades of stories in the UK comics series 2000 A.D. Unfortunately, Dredd underperformed at the box office, ending its chance for sequels. Though in a way, this was a blessing in disguise as many fans feel the Judge Dredd concept and universe is much better suited as an ongoing serialized television series.The hopes of Dredd fans for his return were recently buoyed by the announcement of a television series in the works called Judge Dredd: Mega City One. IM Global, which produced the 2012 Dredd, is also producing the television series, which is great news for the series maintaining the quality level of the feature film. Presumably, the series would take place in the same universe as the movie, though the poster IM Global released touting Mega City One immediately casts a bit of doubt: the poster reads "400-million citizens, each one a potential criminal," when the opening narration by Judge Dredd in the movie declared the city's population is twice that, 800-million.However, this doesn't mean the TV show wouldn't be set in the same universe; the poster's census numbers could be the first clue that the series is set after the events of the film and that some sort of catastrophe occurred in the intervening years that wiped out half of Mega City One's population. Even if that proves to be the case, the Judges from the Hall of Justice who act as judge, jury, and executioner in their duty to try to maintain law and order in Mega City One still have their work cut out for them. According to Dredd's narration about the movie's population numbers, the 800-million inhabitants of Mega City One are responsible for 17,000 crimes per day. The Judges can only handle 6% of crimes reported. Even doubling that number means it's a harrowing and losing battle to be a Judge in Mega City One.
The most important connection a Dredd TV series can have to the movie would be the character of Judge Dredd himself: Karl Urban is in negotiations to reprise his role as Judge Joe Dredd. For years, Urban has actively campaigned for a continuation of Dredd. As Urban himself recently said at the 2017 Star Trek Las Vegas convention: œI am in discussions with them about that. I told them that if they write the material and give Dredd something to do and give him a function, I will be there. I would love to. Urban's potential return to the role of Judge Dredd is exciting news; rarely does an actor who essayed a character in a feature film agree to continue the role in a television spin-off. What's more, Urban proved himself to be the definitive live-action Judge Dredd, with his somber scowl, believable presence, as his true-to-the-comics dedication to never removing his helmet.It's not known whether Olivia Thirlby, who portrayed the rookie Judge Cassandra Anderson, is interested in returning. As Anderson, an orphaned mutant psychic who was on her first day of duty in the film, Thirlby was a bright light in Dredd. She was the audience's surrogate into the world of Mega City One and more than held her own opposite Urban. The film only briefly touched on Anderson's backstory, why mutants are ostracized in the Dredd universe, and what the limits of her telepathic abilities are - the movie mostly depicted this as an ability to hear the violent sexual acts the criminals in Mega City One wanted to perpetrate on her. Thirlby returning to the role alongside Urban would be ideal.
Dredd's plot was a riff on Training Day, which involved Dredd evaluating Anderson on her first mission. The movie took on "a day in the life" structure, which turned into "a day from hell" as Anderson and Dredd are trapped in a Mega Block high rise tower called The Peach Trees, which was controlled by the city's top drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who was distributing a narcotic called Slo-Mo throughout Mega City One. Dredd played out a bit like a video game, with Dredd and Anderson fighting Ma-Ma's henchmen (including four corrupt Judges on the take from Ma-Ma) as they made their way up the Peach Trees, with the occasional boss battle leading up to the final fatal confrontation with Ma-Ma.
A television series would be able to expand the Dredd universe where the film could only hint upon how the Hall of Justice is structured, how Judges operate, the proliferation of drugs and crime in the city, how the world outside Mega City One became the irradiated Cursed Earth, why mutants are so hated in society, and the series could deepen our understanding of Mega City One's socio-economics and societal breakdown. Johannesburg, South Africa was the location the filmmakers used for the exteriors of Mega City One, and its brutal architecture, enhanced by CGI, made for a gritty, yet realistically dystopian urban squalor - much more Neill Blomkamp's District 9 than Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which the 1995 Stallone film tried to ape.
We also don't know too much about Judge Joe Dredd himself and what his backstory is, which a series would be able to shed ample light on. The series would likely introduce a slew of new criminal characters, especially if it's a sequel to the film set years later, though a possible reappearance by Lena Headey, who by then would be fresh off her multi-year stint as Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones, would certainly be welcome.
When he was originally writing the screenplay for Dredd, Alex Garland was going to feature Judge Dredd's classic arch enemy, Judge Death, who would seek to bring down the Hall of Justice and the entire system of law and order in Mega City One. Garland scrapped his plans for Death, feeling that the film couldn't provide enough set up for the Hall of Justice for audiences to invest in it being torn down by Judge Death. This wouldn't be a problem for a television series however; it's the ideal medium to establish everything fans need to know about Mega City One before Judge Death arrives to rip it asunder, and Judge Dredd along with it.
There are numerous thrilling roads Mega City One could lay down that Judge Dredd be able to blaze through on his Lawmaster motorcycle. The film was an efficient kicking down the door into the world of Mega City One, but a television series could explore every filthy, dangerous nook and cranny of the Dredd universe. With the feature film as its inspiration, Mega City One could take Judge Dredd much further down much darker and even more violent paths.