I don't know about you, but I didn't have "Taika Waititi to direct a new Judge Dredd movie" on my 2025 bingo card. And, as a lifelong follower (it feels a little weird to say "fan") of the lawman of the future, I'm both thrilled... and a little nervous.
Dredd has a patchy history with Hollywood. Danny Cannon's 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone is, let's be real, not very good. It looked fantastic for the time and has moments of cheesy charm, but its story is terrible. More to the point, Stallone is a poor fit for the lead role. Stern, sure, but ultimately far too human. Dredd, as he is in the comics, is a steel-toecapped bastard. He exists purely to serve the law in Mega-City One. He doesn't take off his helmet, and he definitely doesn't kiss people.
Alex Garland understood that. 2012's Dredd, which he wrote and – if whispers from its star Karl Urban are correct – largely directed, was made for a minimal budget and didn't quite nail the look of the sprawling future metropolis. It didn't matter, though, because Urban was so good in the lead role, nailing both Dredd's outer blankness and the turbulent emotions you occasionally glimpse bubbling beneath the surface. It was violent, too, in a fun action movie way. I will never forget my mate Stuart, who somehow didn't know the film was rated 18 in the UK, laughing with delight as Dredd's "hot shot" set a perp's face on fire. Good times.
An antihero, not a hero
That film did not perform well at the box office, though it quickly picked up a strong fan following and found an audience with its home release. Over the years, Dredd has built up a strong reputation, with Urban saying many times that he would gladly reprise the role given the chance. That has added to my strange sense of ambivalence towards the new movie. Although there have been no firm details released as yet, it seems fairly certain that this will be a complete reboot with a new actor in the lead, and that's a bit of a shame given how well Urban embodied the part.
The good news is that Waititi, if The Hollywood Reporter's story is to be believed, is a fan of the comics. I'm not the sort of person who demands fan service, but Judge Dredd has such a specific tone that it's important that an adaptation is in the hands of somebody who actually understands it.
Let's be clear for a moment here: Joe Dredd is not a hero. He's usually (though not always) the protagonist of his stories, but he's also an absolutely terrible person and a willing servant of an authoritarian regime. The comics draw much of their power from the way they satirize these aspects of his character, often showing both Dredd and his world to be so nightmarishly awful that it tips over into black comedy. Dredd's the sort of copper who wouldn't think twice about giving you 10 years' hard time for littering, and you don't want to know what he thinks about democracy...
As the comics have continued in real time (almost uniquely for a long-running comic, Dredd ages a year at a time alongside the reader – he's currently in his mid-80s, but underwent forced-rejuvenation to keep him on the streets) so the character has found himself increasingly questioning the system he has devoted his life to. That's an interesting flavor, and one that serves to humanize him, at least a little. At the same time, it makes his continued service for the Justice Department all the more unconscionable. Basically, while the Judge Dredd comics are about a future policeman, they're about as far away from "copaganda" as you can get.
With all that in mind, you can see why making a new Dredd movie is so appealing right now. In an age of rising real-world authoritarianism and state-supported violence, the stark warning offered by Joe Dredd and his colleagues feels more vital than ever.
The right man for the job?
Which brings us back to the Taika Waititi of it all. Over the last few years it's felt like the director has become a bit of a victim of his own success, his ubiquity growing a little grating, alongside the mixed response to Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Love and Thunder. His work has a very specific tone, one that's original and personal, but also one that doesn't immediately feel like a natural fit for the world of Judge Dredd.
To counter that for a second, though, I also remain hopeful. Waititi has a history of putting real-world themes front and center in his films, while still making them fun and accessible. My response to Love and Thunder may have been to somehow contort my face precisely into the human equivalent of the 😐 emoji, but Thor: Ragnarok is one of the highpoints of the MCU, a genuinely funny and exciting popcorn blockbuster that's also explicitly about colonialism.
Likewise, Jojo Rabbit tackles fascism head-on, with the bullied 10-year-old Jojo imagining an unlikely best friend in the form of Hitler (played, with camp relish, by Waititi himself). It's a provocative, borderline edgelord-y premise, but one that's undercut by the film's emotional core, as Jojo befriends a young Jewish girl and begins to understand the horror of the Nazi regime that he's a part of.
It's also probably the case that, with the two existing Judge Dredd films having failed at the box office, the character's cinematic stock is likely fairly low right now. In the UK, Dredd is close to a household name, but in the US, he's still more of a cult character. Having a big-name director like Waititi attached – someone who is both passionate about the project and knowledgeable about the character – is probably necessary to give Ol' Stony Face another shot at the big time.
Despite my initial concerns, I am cautiously excited about the new movie. That The Hollywood Reporter's article notes that the potential film (which will be written by Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation screenwriter Drew Pearce, himself a big name) is said to "take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor" is a promising start. Let's hope that those laughs are of the bitter and satirical variety, that Mega-City One is a suitably dystopian hellscape that also holds a mirror up to our own society, and that Judge Joseph Dredd's helmet stays firmly on.
We're still waiting on a release date for the new Judge Dredd. In the meantime, you can keep track of all the upcoming superhero movies or read up on the best Judge Dredd comics.
