Dredd bombed at the box office. Blame the marketing. Blame the 3D emphasis. Blame residual hate of the cheesy ’90s version. Blame whatever you want, but it tanked in theaters, earning just $13 million in the U.S.
However the movie proved to be incredibly popular on home video and streaming services. And once the audience for the movie discovered, “Hey, this Dredd movie is actually crazy cool,” they began demanding a sequel. Sadly, that’s not how sequels get funded, though. If the audience doesn’t show up to the theaters, it takes a miracle to get a follow-up film greenlit.
The producer of Dredd, however, may shortcut his way around a miracle. Sure, it’s hard to justify making another $50 million movie when the first failed. But what if you make an animated version? Granted, animation itself isn’t dirt cheap to produce, but it does have a lot of advantages over live-action. There’s no need to build sets. You don’t have to work around the competitive schedules of your actors, who have become even more popular since the original. That extra flexibility can make a huge difference, and it seems like producer Adi Shankar knows this, telling Collider:
“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.”
This isn’t the first time Shankar has tried to continue Dredd in animation, either. He produced a short film in the Dredd universe just last year, which you can watch below.
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And if you want a more official sequel, you can pick up a copy of Dredd: Underbelly.