DREDD Star Olivia Thirlby Also Wants a Sequel with Alex Garland's Invovment
It’s just crazy to me that a sequel to the 2012 film Dredd hasn’t happened yet. That was seriously one hell of a great comic book movie. Easily one of the best! I remember the first time I saw it, it was a free screening at Comic-Con and our crew walked out of that completely excited and hyped up about what we had just watched! That was a great night.
For years fans have wanted to see a sequel get made, and one of the main supporters has been Karl Urban, who starred in the film. He’s always being asked about it, and he always says he would love to do it. Well, now his co-star Olivia Thirlby is being asked about a possible sequel, and of course she wants it to happen! She would also love writer Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) return to help develop it.
She was asked about the sequel in an interview with Collider, and this was her response:
"First of all, let me just say, I was always the number one advocate of getting a sequel for Dredd. I love that movie and I love that character. If there is still talk of there being a sequel 10 years later, I am all for it.
"If we're gonna talk about a sequel to Dredd, we have to also whisper to the gods of the film universe that Alex Garland be part of that."
Thirlby played the character of Cassandra Anderson, who was a new recruit to the Judge’s program. She finds herself in an insane situation where she is forced to fight to survive. She was awesome in the film! The actress goes to to praise Garland for his work on the film and the character he created for her:
"I just also have to take a second and shout out Alex Garland because the Anderson that he wrote was so thoughtful and sensitive and nuanced and empowered and powerful, not because she was trying to be Dredd or be like a man, but because she was exactly herself and that journey of her finding herself and her true strength is what I love so much about that movie and what I felt like, as an actor, it was so meaty to lean into that role."
At the end of the movie, Thirlby’s character proves that she’s got what it take to be a Judge, but she ends up dropping her badge in Dredd’s hands and it looks like she didn’t want any part of the program after that. It seemed like she was walking away. When asked about her take on the ending of the film, she said:
"What that gesture is about at the end, she's bowing out of her ambition. She's bowing out of a drive that she had to be an A student, to be perfect and to be the one who's doing it right. I think she's learned that the world is way too messy for her to have a personal investment in being shiny and important and in control. Whatever that would yield for her in her journey as a person, maybe her journey as a judge, I couldn't say. That would have to be in the mind of whomever was telling her story onward. But I would like to think that she would continue being a judge."
I would sure love to see a Dredd sequel, but at this point, I just don’t think it’s gonna happen. At least we have that one perfect Dredd film that was made that we can watch anytime. It’d just be awesome to see that story continue.