Much like the campy Sylvester Stallone-led Judge Dredd of 1995, the Urban outing has become a forgotten comic book adaptation. But the thing is, people actually liked Dredd and there were once hopes for a movie trilogy.
So, what went wrong?
Unlike Sly’s film, Travis went with a serious approach. He may have kept gruesome shots of someone’s organs being blasted with a gun whilst Urban spouted ludicrous one-liners you might expect from John McClane, but this was a more mature take on the 2000 AD comic strip.
Dredd ended with Urban’s Judge training Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) as his young protégé, with a sly smile from beneath the helmet proving that this old war dog had mellowed during the film’s events.
Everything was set for a sequel, with writer Alex Garland revealing at the movie’s first screening that he’d planned out a trilogy if it made over $50 million at the North American box office. Unfortunately, Dredd scraped by with just $41.5 million.
In the latest edition of our free digital magazine The Lowdown, we take a look at the uncertain future of Dredd, the plans for the sequel that never happened, arguing it's time for the Judge to return.
Read the full feature here.For all things pop culture, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
