A new Judge Dredd movie is (finally) in the works, 13 years after Karl Urban’s Dredd became a dark horse cult-classic – but it’s not Dredd 2. This latest reboot of the franchise is being put in the hands of director Taika Waititi, best known for directing Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok and its less-regarded sequel film, Thor: Love and Thunder. A lot of fans have been wondering where Waititi would land in terms of his next big franchise project, especially since there’s been very little traction on the Star Wars film he’s been attached to for years. Few could’ve predicted that it would be a Judge Dredd film that Waititi selected, and it certainly raises a lot of new questions, to be sure.
Drew Pearce will be writing the script for this new take on Judge Dredd; that should please a lot of fans, as Pearce’s screenwriting credits include some big genre favorites like Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and more recently The Fall Guy. He seems like a natural fit for this kind of reboot. Dredd rights holders Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley, and Ben Smith are all involved with the project, producing via their Rebellion Developments venture; other producers include Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, Jeremy Platt, Natalie Viscuso, and Drew Pearce.
THR makes note of the fact that Taika Waititi and Drew Pearce are friends who have been looking for a project to work on together; Their shared love of Judge Dredd comics seemed to be the common ground needed. A lot of fans won’t be able to avoid connecting the dots: Waititi is also friends with actor Karl Urban, who starred Dredd (2012), and has always made it clear that he would step back into the role, given the opportunity – and this seems like just that kind of opportunity. Since Urban’s version of the character stayed true to the comic and never removed his helmet onscreen, or showed his face (unlike Sylvester Stallone in the ’90s film), it would be seamless to have him return to the role again, all these years later.
The Judge Dredd character (created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra) debuted as part of the British weekly comic anthology 2000 A.D. in 1977, and eventually got spun off into his own series in the 1990s. Set in a dystopian future where lawlessness is rampant, the “mega city” pockets of civilization are maintained through a brutal system of law and order, in which “street judges” operate as police, lawyer, and judge rolled all into one. Judge Dredd is a hard-edged veteran officer who holds the reputation as one of the most rigid and ruthless true-believers of the word of the law.
The original intent of the Dredd character and the 2000 A.D. comic was to satirize British and American cultures’ respective bends towards more authoritarian ideas of policing. Obviously, those same issues have grown into a red-hot button issue today; after seeing Taika Waititi’s Academy Award-winning satirical work with his film Jojo Rabbit (2019), one can only imagine what he and Pearce have in mind for a Judge Dredd film. So far, we’re only hearing that “the pitch is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations,” and that it is being positioned as a “fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture.” It’s also being noted that the film is being intended as the launchpad for an entire “Dredd universe” that could extend across additional films and TV shows.
We’ll keep you updated on the development of the new Judge Dredd film as it comes out.
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