In the time since the 2012 release of Dredd, few people have more vocally called for a sequel than Adi Shankar, who served as an executive producer on the film. Despite Dredd’s underwhelming box office haul, the pleasingly faithful take on the popular Judge Dredd character has earned itself a legion of followers via home video and streaming, and Shankar believes that those followers deserve a worthy big-screen follow-up. For his part, star Karl Urban has been right there with Shankar in pushing for a sequel to be made.

Just last week, Shankar once again stoked the potential Dredd sequel fires by promising that he would personally make sure the film happened, despite admitting that no firm plans for such a project were currently in place. Shankar also hinted that if a live-action Dredd sequel truly isn’t in the cards, then an animated sequel might be created to fill the void and continue the story. While the idea of an animated Dredd 2 was met with a fairly mixed response from fans, many agreed that it would at least be better than never getting another Dredd film at all.

With all of the above in mind, one would assume that Shankar remains heavily involved in the process of getting a Dredd sequel off the ground, and is actively engaged in trying to further the property’s journey on film. However, according to Jason Kingsley - co-owner of the Judge Dredd character and also an executive producer on the 2012 film - such assumptions would be entirely incorrect. Kingsley tells Screen Geek that Shankar is in no way involved with either a potential Dredd 2 or the Dredd franchise as a whole.

Here’s Kingsley’s full quote on the matter:

It’ll be interesting to see what Shankar himself has to say in response to Kingsley’s claims, as every statement Shankar has made to date concerning Dredd 2 has heavily implied that he is directly involved with the process of trying to get the sequel made. If what Kingsley said above is in fact true, one can only wonder what Shankar’s goal was in leading fans to believe otherwise.

“While we truly do appreciate Adi’s enthusiasm for Judge Dredd, he has no involvement with the franchise and any future cinematic or small screen outings. Claims of him pushing forward a sequel to DREDD are not true and we don’t want fans to get excited only to have their hopes dashed. 2000 AD and Rebellion continue to work hard to bring the future’s greatest lawman back to screens.”

Source: Screen Geek