“2000 AD” Judge Dredd Cover
Judge Dredd emains one of the most perennially underrated action heroes in comic books, particularly when it comes to the United States. The “street judge” is one of the most hard-boiled characters in the world of British comics but has never quite found the recognition he deserves. But thanks to some potential new developments from the character’s parent company, we might be seeing a lot more of him in the near future.
It seemed like things might be changing for the better with the 2012 film, Dredd. The action-packed bullet-fest felt like a comic-book version of Gareth Evans’ 2011 masterpiece, The Raid: Redemption but failed to make an impact at the box office. It was a shame because Dredd has gone on to become something of a cult favorite. Fans have long been clamoring for a potential sequel, but until recently it seemed as though any hopes were dead in the water. That all changed when Rebellion Developments (the owners of the character) hinted strongly toward an announcement later this year for what could be a streaming TV series.
Rebellion, which typically specializes in video games, bought 2000 AD comics back in 2000 and have since worked to develop its cast of characters into a number of games. The company is perhaps best known for the Sniper Elite series and has been receiving a fair amount of praise for the latest game, Sniper Elite 4. Of course, all the time spent on Sniper Elite hasn’t left much for anything else. This is a large reason for the dearth of Judge Dredd games lately.
One of the few games based on the character that you’ve been able to find in the past several years has been a browser-based title that brought the dystopia of Mega-City One to life as the backdrop for an online slot reel. The Judge Dredd game is one of many casino titles licensing popular characters and franchises that are available at a variety of platforms on the web. What these games often lack in gameplay they tend to make up for by bringing the sights and sounds of some of the most popular properties to the slots. Still, it’s a far cry from the kind of hard-hitting action title that fans have been looking for.
Thankfully, that all might be changing soon also. Rebellion is opening up Dredd and the rest of the 2000AD stable to other developers for licensing purposes and that could mean a whole lot more Dredd games. In addition to Judge Dredd this could also potentially lead to games based on other properties like Strontium Dog, The Helltrekkers, and more.
With hints of a big announcement for a new Judge Dredd project on the horizon and the news that more people will be able to work with 2000 AD, it could be a great time for some post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Now we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that developers will make the most of the opportunity.
