Fan Made Dredd 2 Trailer Ventures Into The Cursed Earth

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Dredd may have tanked, and tanked hard, when it was released in August 2012, but ever since it found a wider audience on home video, fans have been clamoring for more more more. We’ve heard that talks have been going on, though nothing is concrete. Apparently for one fan, that’s not nearly good enough, so he went on out and made up a kick ass trailer for an imaginary sequel, and I have to say, this is one that I would actually like to see.

In this pseudo trailer, cut together by a YouTube user named Whiplash Dynamo, the titular law-enforcement badass takes his particular brand of black-and-white justice outside the walls of Mega City One. Beyond the cramped urban environs of the crime-ridden megatropolis, lies the Cursed Earth.

In the Judge Dredd universe, the Atomic Wars of 2070 left most of North America a scorched, desolate wasteland. Only three Mega Cities remain, one in California, one in Texas, and Dredd’s stomping ground, which takes up the bulk of the East Coast. Full of mutants, outlaws, and all manner of barely-human things, the Cursed Earth is essentially a post-apocalyptic frontier battle zone where any and every thing goes. There are small enclaves, but also larger collections of people, including religious cults and groups that occasionally threaten the cities. At least in this one imagined continuation of the franchise, this is where Judge Dredd and his partner, Judge Cassandra Anderson (played in the movie by Olivia Thirlby), venture to ply their trade.

Here’s what Whiplash Dynamo says about his project:

Cut together this trailer for a Dredd sequel. Really hope this becomes a reality. Dredd was such a great film and got everything about the character right. Here’s hoping this trailer makes fans who want a sequel happy.

Dredd star Karl Urban has always has positive things to say about the film, indicating that he, too, hopes a follow-up happens. At the end of February, however, he set all of our hearts a-flutter when he confirmed that there have been talks between director Pete Travis, screenwriter Alex Garland, and the studio executives at Lionsgate, who released the first film and botched the marketing something awful. He didn’t actually say anything about what the talks entailed, so it is possible that they went poorly, but if that’s the case, why would he mention it, unless he’s trying to be a total dick. If nothing else, we can hope and dream that one day this might happen.

Dredd broke sales records when it first hit Blu-ray and DVD, and though there are no current plans for a film sequel, the story does have one in comic form. The graphic novel, Dredd: Underbelly, has already gone through multiple printings, one of which sold out before it even hit shelves. Hopefully all of this positive reaction, not to mention money, will pique the interest of the movie studios. Until then, we’ll have to keep watching this trailer.

Dredd: Underbelly