After wowing audiences with Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi's Love and Thunder left most MCU fans perplexed and ready to grab pitchforks.
While Thor: Ragnarok was widely praised, Thor: Love and Thunder received a more mixed response from critics and audiences. Following that, Taika Waititi appeared to take a step back from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s been speculated that Marvel may be reassessing what role he could play in future projects.
Likewise, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has been somewhat vague in recent interviews about the status of Waititi's Star Wars movie, which was first announced back in May 2020.
However, it seems Waititi is not done with the superhero genre as The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that he's currently developing a Judge Dredd movie with prominent British screenwriter Drew Pearce, known for Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
Per THR, the pair are working on the project at the behest of Dredd rights holders Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley, and Ben Smith of Rebellion Developments.
The duo are currently shopping the project around various Hollywood studios, and it seems to be garnering significant interest.
If it moves forward, this would mark the third live-action take on the classic British comic, following Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd in 1995 and the well-received Dredd starring Karl Urban in 2012.
Early reports suggest the new project aims to capture the comic’s signature dark humor while still delivering the action and spectacle of a large-scale sci-fi adventure.
Judge Dredd was primarily created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. They debuted the iconic lawman in the British comic 2000 AD in 1977, with Wagner developing the character and setting, and Ezquerra designing his distinctive look.
Judge Dredd takes place in a harsh, dystopian future where sprawling Mega-Cities are overwhelmed by crime. In this world, elite law enforcers known as Judges have the power to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals on the spot. At the center is Joseph Dredd, a strict and fearless symbol of the law.
The last significant update on any adaptation of the British IP came back in May 2017, when Rebellion Developments was shopping a Judge Dredd TV series, titled Mega City One, around to various streamers.
Rebellion Developments also owns the rights to Rogue Trooper, which just recently unleashed a first look at Duncan Jones' Unreal Engine 5 animated pic.