Dredd Director Pete Travis on the Planned Trilogy

In a new interview promoting the film's home video release, Dredd director Pete Travis said that a sequel to the cult-hit film is unlikely--and that even if it were to happen, he probably would not return to direct it. "I don't think so. I really hope there is a second one. I just feel very lucky to have been involved in the first one. It has been a great experience for me," Garland told MovieWeb. "I read Alex Garland's script two years ago, and I feel in love with it then. I have enjoyed the whole process of working on that with him, and bringing it to the screen. It was extraordinary. I hope they get the chance to make another one. I think Dredd is an extraordinary character. I think Karl Urban captured him so perfectly. I think there is a real beautiful future there." Back when Dredd was headed to theaters, writer Alex Garland told reporters that if the movie made $50 million at the U.S. box office, the studio's plan was to greenlight a sequel. Even before the movie failed to hit that mark, though, Garland backed off somewhat and suggested that maybe the character's best path forward was a TV series or miniseries on pay cable. Prior to that, Garland had revealed plans for a trilogy, which he had already outlined. Executives at DNA Films, who produced the movie, expressed enthusiasm for his plans. "Alex (Garland) has a very good idea for Dredd's journey," said DNA's Andrew MacDonald in September. "I certainly think it would be an exciting thing to be done. We've nailed a style and we have found in Karl Urban an absolutely magic Judge Dredd. It will be something that we will do again in partnership with IM Global. I am sure that, if it works, it's something that all the distributors will want to do again." In the MovieWeb interview, Travis confirmed that it was his understanding as well that Garland had a trilogy mapped out. ""I think Alex Garland has a trilogy in his mind. I think there is a whole exciting journey in front of Dredd if Alex and Karl Urban get to take him on that journey," the director said. "The future is really exciting for him. Especially in terms of going with some of the other characters from the comic book. Finding out more about where Dredd comes from. I also think its exciting, the possibilities. The first film does go all out as a visual feast. Whoever gets a chance to do the others will take that, and make it even more exciting. I can't wait to see it. I don't really know how the sequel thing works, really. I hope they get another chance to make a second film. I think Karl Urban...he is Dredd. It would be really exciting for them to make another, and go further with that character. I sincerely hope so." The filmmaker, and fans of Dredd, now pins all hope for a sequel on the performance of the DVD and Blu-ray, which frankly would have to be stellar for that to be a realistic strategy. Stranger things have happened, though; home video success brought back Fox's cancelled Family Guy, which has turned out to be the cornerstone of the network's popular Animation Domination block of programming. Arrested Development was similarly resurrected, with the first new episodes in nearly a decade set to go live on Netflix in May. "I just want to say if this film is a one-off cult classic, then I'm cool with that because I'm really proud of the film," star Karl Urban said in a recent interview. "And we showed it the other night and the audience loved it. And to me that's like, I'm happy. I'm good. If we don't end making more of these, than I'm cool with that because it's all good on my end. If we're fortunate enough if it blows up at the box office, then absolutely I would definitely love to come back and reprise the role and make more of these. I just think there's so much fertile ground to explore within the character and within the world. And I would love to see the continuing story and the evolution of these characters and the relationship between Anderson and Dredd. And it would be interesting to find out more about the world, more about Dredd. It would be really cool to see the Dark Judges. There's so much. And it would be great to — we've seen one aspect, one sector of Mega-City One. It would be great to see other aspects." It would. "Dredd 3D was incredible," we wrote in our review back in July. "If Die Hard and Sin City had an awesome, brilliant, violent baby, this film would be it." So...check out the film on Blu-ray.