Netflix and Amazon have been busy churning out an increasing amount of original content over the last couple of years, and now they’re even getting requests: Karl Urban of Star Trek fame gave the two companies a strong nudge on Twitter late last week when he shared that he’d love to reprise his brilliant take on Judge Dredd in a follow-up to 2012’s Dredd.
Based on the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd, the film wasn’t a massive commercial success, but it did attract a strong cult following. The enthusiasm of fans has been evident — first in the number of fans encouraging Urban on Twitter to play Judge Dredd again, and then in their reaction to his willingness to do so. So far, over 150,000 people have signed a 2000 AD petition, according to a tweet today, calling for some kind of sequel to be realized.
“The clamour of the growing fanbase [sic] for more from the incredible world of the 2012 DREDD movie cannot be ignored,” says the petition, “we call on TV and movie producers to step up to the plate and give us more, either through a pay-to-view TV series or a new movie!”
Urban seemed to suggest a film sequel in his tweet, calling the hypothetical project “Dredd 2.” He did, however, also point out (and rightly so) that “there’s a gold mine” of Mega-City One stories.
Dredd 2 : I’d do it !! @netflix or @Amazon . There’s a gold mine of Awesome Mega city 1 stories ! https://t.co/5KeUAizPNS
— Karl Urban (@KarlUrban) April 21, 2016
The wealth of possibilities stems from the multi-layered world, which, in the comics, includes a mutant-inhabited desert, robots, aliens, and more. Judge Dredd is also full of action and brutal violence, which would lend themselves well to the series format. Netflix and Amazon would be smart to consider the idea, especially after the overwhelming popularity of darker superhero stories from Netflix like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
And frankly, if Full House can get a sequel series from Netflix, it seems like there ought to be room enough for Dredd.
