Dredd Screenwriter Says Sequel Unlikely

Sad news, Dredd Fans: the film’s screenwriter, Alex Garland, says we’re not likely to see a sequel to the 2012 cult hit. In a recent interview with IGN on the set of his directorial debut, Ex Machina, Garland gave us some real talk:

“As far as I’m concerned? Yeah it is [dead]. My hope is, and I actually think this will happen – somebody else will do it. Not to be all coy and silly about it, but I think our film was better than the first one, right? Just to be blunt. And the job of the next people is to make their film better than ours. And then if they do that, then finally, maybe this character will break out in the way that it deserves to. But we’ll see.”

Fans like myself have been clamoring for more since Dredd’s release, including signing a petition. There’s been plenty of rumors, vague promises, and hopeful talk from the film’s stars and production crew to keep our hopes up, but Garland set the record straight:

“I feel grateful to the people who’ve attempted to get a sequel off the ground. And sorry that actually what happened was we let them down. Because the reality is that a film needs to acquit itself. It shouldn’t need a petition. And the truth is if it gets to the point where it needs a petition, it’s in big trouble anyway.”

This is a real shame, considering how Garland wanted future films to play out:

“The first film we made it for about $35m, although quite a lot of that was to do with shooting it in 3D. Or a chunk of it. And we managed to make that film for that budget by locking it in a building essentially, sort of Die Hard-style. In the second film it was going to go out into the desert, which would be The Cursed Earth – people who know the comic book would know immediately what that means. And maybe throw some money at some key sequences. That’s how you do it I guess. I think we could have made it for another $30m, $35m type thing. We could have made it for $30m if we shot it in 2D. $35m maybe 3D I guess. Of that order. But the third one that would have been more expensive, because it would have been going back to the city and maybe bringing in some Dark Judges or something like that.”

Fans of the comic will know how much it hurts to hear what might have been had only the stars been right.

Be sure to check out Garland’s upcoming film, Ex Machina, coming to theaters April 10