Lionsgate / Rebellion

In the kind of almost slavish devotion rarely seen for properties not called Firefly, fans have never given up hope of a sequel to 2012's cinematic comic adaptation Dredd. Now though, the character's publisher Rebellion is making an official drive to show producers there's a market for more.

Rebellion has launched Bring Back Dredd, a campaign which currently has more than 136,000 signees. Shepherded by "superfans" Frank Palmer and Brian Ritchie, it's shifting focus away from a theatrical sequel slightly, and is now targeting producers of the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO to bring it back as a TV series. "With the success of series such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Man in the High Castle, the clamour of the growing fanbase for more from the incredible world of the 2012 Dredd movie cannot be ignored," the campaign text reads. "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!"


The movie served as the kind of redemption for Judge Dredd that the character so often denies the criminal scum plaguing Mega-City One. Ignoring the Sylvester Stallone-headed disaster from 1996, the succinctly titled Dredd was a polished piece of action cinema that perfectly captured the fascist lawmaker from the pages of 2000 AD. Unfortunately, while it thrilled audiences and critics, it failed to set the box office alight, and a sequel has yet to materialise.

The "Bring Back Dredd" campaign has grown from purely fan driven efforts that have grown online, following the movie's release. Although it only brought in $41.5m (£28.9m) during its cinema run on a $45m (£31.3m) budget, Dredd has been an enduring sleeper hit. An annual "Day of Dredd" event sees the title regularly spike in sales, thanks to concentrated pushes to buy the film on Blu-ray and DVD. The continued attention has also attracted praise from actors Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby, who played Dredd and his apprentice, Cadet Judge Anderson.

series from Netflix or Amazon?" said Jason Kingsley, co-owner of Rebellion and 2000 AD. "I wish them all the best and thank them for keeping the faith. In the meantime, we've been doing -- and will continue to do -- all we can to give the fans what they want, which is more from the incredibly rich world of Judge Dredd."

At present, none of the targeted studios have responded. Until they do, there are at least comic sidestories set in the movie's continuity to give fans a thrill-fix. Dredd: Underbelly ran in the pages of 2000 AD companion series Judge Dredd Megazine in 2013, and Top of the World served as a short digital prequel.