10 Planned Comic Book Movie Sequels (And What Happened)
3. Dredd 2
The Planned Sequel
No, not the Sylvester Stallone movie - the badass low-budget Karl Urban flick. Dredd remains one of the most underrated comic book films ever, with the most faithful version of the character so far and some of the most stylish sequences in action film history.
In a genius move by writer Alex Garland, the protagonist is actually a trainee Judge, meaning there’s still a meaningful character arc on display without having to get Dredd to take his helmet off.
Garland had actually signed on for 3 Dredd scripts, with the followups set to continue exploring more of the Judge's crackdown on crime in Megacity One, and Karl Urban was set to appear in all three. Presumably, Olivia Thirlby (the psychic Judge Anderson) would have also returned to help Dredd, too.
But work on the sequels' scripts would have only begin progress once the original film's box office returns were finalised.
What Happened?
The producers said they would only greenlight sequels if it made a meager $50 million at the box office. Sadly, it barely broke $40m, and so the planned trilogy was tossed out, and all hopes of a sequel movie are still gone.
Luckily, there has been talk of a Dredd show being planned for streaming services, and screenwriter Alex Garland instead went on to make Ex Machina and Annihilation, two of the best sci-fi films of the decade. So it’s not all bad!