Director Pete Travis is hard at work finalizing Dredd for its September 21st release date, but writer Alex Garland‘s focus lies on future law-abiding adventures, according to Bleeding Cool.
While speaking during Dredd‘s panel at the London Film and Comic Con, Garland speculated exactly how much domestic gross would green-light a Judge Dredd sequel along with what stories a full trilogy could cover.
According to Garland, this is what we could possibly see if Dredd can produce financial success:
We’ll see a sequel if the gross is above $50 million in the US. It’s a simple financial equation. We’re an independent movie… In terms of Dark Judges, I wrote Death into this script, but it didn’t feel right for the first film. I thought it felt right but after about 16 drafts and it really didn’t work out.
I needed to have set up the city and Dredd first before taking on what is essentially a riff on the Judges. You need to know what the Judges are before you can subvert them.
I wrote a second script which was about Dredd going out to the Cursed Earth. That was rejected for similar reasons.
If they want to make sequels, I’ve got a story that goes from this one into the origins of Dredd and the city. Then the third one has would have a strange, existential attack from the Dark Judges.
While giving us a benchmark of $50 million, Garland also teases the incorporation of long time villain Judge Death and his posse The Dark Judges as planned antagonists for future stories, hoping hardcore Dredd-heads will head to theaters in droves to support further films.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Everything will depend on the box office performance of Dredd.  Using simple supply and demand business tactics, if the demand exists for another installment of Judge Dredd mayhem, you better believe studios will want to cash in on the sentiment.
On the flip side, if Dredd flops as yet another reboot gone awry and bombs numbers-wise, Garland’s planning will be for naught and Judge Death remains as nothing but a forgotten dream.
Before we go asking for any more of the Judge though, let’s see if Dredd even deserves a sequel.
What do you think? Will Judge Dredd be granted the opportunity for a trilogy?
