The 2012 film Dredd, directed by Pete Travis and starring Karl Urban, introduced fans to a brand new iteration of the famous 2000 AD character. Grittier and more grounded than previous incarnations of Judge Dredd (including the infamous 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone) Dredd received positive critical reception, but scant attention at the box office. The film went on to achieve success upon home release and has become a cult classic among fans of the character.
Dredd’s low earnings has made the possibility of a sequel film slim, although ardent support from fans has kept the possibility alive. This support finally bore fruit in 2018 with the release of a two-issue mini-series, Dredd: Final Judgement (by Arthur Wyatt, Alex De Campi, and Henry Flint). A direct sequel to the 2012 film, the series continues the adventures of Judge Dredd in the alternate universe established in the film.
The story begins with Judge Dredd attempting to apprehend a violent arsonist. The criminal sets himself on fire and dies in front of the lawman; simultaneously, a group of young school girls commit suicide by jumping to their deaths. Dredd is confused by the sudden mass suicides, but before he can contemplate it further he receives a call to visit a technologies lab.
Dredd learns that three scientists are dead and four are missing from the lab. To gain more information, Dredd visits another Judge, Maxwell, who informs him that an experiment in harnessing extra-dimensional energy went horribly wrong. What the scientists hadn’t been expecting was opening a portal between their dimension and a parallel world that had succumbed to a state of total entropy.
Another city suddenly descends from the sky that turns out to be a perfect reflection of their world save for one key detail: it is completely dead. Inching closer to Mega City One, the Dead World has brought with it four beings intent on spreading the entropy of their world. Within moments, chaos erupts in Mega City One in the form of plague, fires, mass suicides, and murders. Dredd confronts the beings who refer to themselves as Judge Fire, Judge Mortis, Judge Fear, and Judge Death. Collectively the villains are known as the Dark Judges, and they used the bodies of the missing scientists as gateways into their home dimension. Unable to kill the villains, Dredd initiates a last ditch plan to stop the Dark Judges.
Climbing his way up into Dead World, Dredd destroys the bodies of the missing scientists. Without their energy conduits, the Dark Judges disappear and Dead World recedes with them. Mega City One is safe and the remaining Judges celebrate except for Dredd who exists alone in Dead World after sacrificing himself to save his world.
Dredd: Final Judgement is an ambitious story and an interesting direction for the 2012 film’s universe. Dredd was a much more grounded representation of Judge Dredd, choosing to focus on drug gangs and corrupt Judges rather than aliens, mutants, or killer robots. That iteration of Judge Dredd was inexperienced in dealing with entities such as the Dark Judges and he did so without the aid of Anderson, a crucial weapon he used against them in the comics.
Leaving only two issues to introduce the Dark Judges, Dead World, and how Dredd handles them was incredibly brief, but it was an original take on the characters that ended on a solid cliff-hanger. Had this story been told as a sequel film an extended run time would have been needed in order to do the Dark Judges justice. A TV series entitled Judge Dredd: Mega City One was announced by Rebellion and IM Global Television in 2017 and has since been in pre-development. With the show still forthcoming fans will have to wait and see if it’s a direct continuation of the 2012 film or if Judge Dredd will embark on entirely new adventures within Mega City One.