I'm starting to wonder, are we ever actually going to see the Judge Dredd television series Mega-City One, or are we just going to hear people talk about it forever? Hopefully the show will get made at some point, but right now we're three years into the "hearing people talk about it" scenario. The pilot script was finished two years ago, and last month Jason Kingsley – CEO of Rebellion, which holds the rights to the Judge Dredd property – stated that multiple episode scripts are written and ready to go, now the show just has to wait until the pandemic situation cools down.
For the last three years, we've been hearing that Karl Urban, who played Dredd in the awesome 2012 movie DREDD (watch it HERE), might reprise the role for the TV show. Of course, now there's the issue that Urban is already starring in a different comic book inspired series, Amazon's The Boys.
While Urban was speaking with ScreenGeek about the second season of The Boys, the subject of Mega-City One came up. When asked if he has had talks about returning as Dredd, he said,
Well, listen, it’s very, very early to get into any specifics on that, but I’ve gone on the record before saying that I would love to come back and be a part of that world and tell more Dredd stories. There is just a plethora of great, great stories within the Judge Dredd universe. I think that Jason [Kingsley] and his team – I think that the legacy of Judge Dredd is in great hands. And if I get the opportunity to work with those guys, you can bet your bottom dollar I will be there – because I think that it would be just a real rich and rewarding experience for, not only for us to collaborate, but for the fans. So, if that happens, that’d be fantastic and for whatever reason – and there are many – if it doesn’t happen, then I wish them the best, and I can’t wait to see what they do."
I would love to see Urban play Dredd again, we should have had the chance to see him play the character in several sequels to DREDD by now, but his involvement won't make or break the series for me. If Mega-City One has a chance to go into production and Urban is busy with The Boys or something, I'd rather they just keep it moving forward anyway. It sounds like Urban will be fine with it if they make the show without him.