It’s been almost 10 years since Dredd hit theaters, but hopes for a sequel are still mighty strong. The movie is based on the Judge Dredd comic and features Karl Urban in the title role. He’s an enforcer with the power to act as judge, jury and executioner in the crime-filled Mega-City One. Dredd is tasked with evaluating a new recruit with great potential, Olivia Thirlby’s Cassandra Anderson. While investigating a situation in the Peach Trees tower block, they find themselves going up against the drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), essentially giving Anderson one of the most difficult, violent and dangerous first assignments imaginable.
With Y: The Last Man now well into its first season on FX on Hulu, Thirlby took the time to join us for a new episode of Collider Ladies Night. We retraced her steps from her very first feature film, The Secret, to playing Hero Brown in Y: The Last Man and, of course, we absolutely had to make a little pitstop to talk about Dredd.
During that portion of the chat, I mentioned the continuing interest in a sequel and Thirlby jumped right in:
“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.”
Warning! The rest of this article contains Dredd spoilers.Should we ever actually get this Dredd sequel, what could be next for Anderson? At the very end of the film, Anderson hands her badge over to Dredd. Is that because she’s well aware of all the things she did that would technically call for her to fail her evaluation or is it because she’s no longer interested in being a judge anyway? Here’s Thirlby’s take:
“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.”
Before wrapping up, Thirlby took a moment to highlight Alex Garland’s contribution to the film. Garland is credited as a writer and producer on Dredd, but there’s also been a whole lot of chatter that his contribution went well beyond that with Urban flat-out stating in 2018 that “Alex Garland actually directed that movie.” While Thirlby didn’t comment on Garland’s involvement in that capacity, she did emphasize how instrumental he was to crafting a role that was mighty exciting for her to dig into. Here’s how she put it:
“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.”
Given that, it should come as no surprise that if we do get a Dredd sequel, Thirlby would like Garland to be involved:
“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.”
Looking for more from Thirlby? You can listen to our full conversation uncut in podcast form below. We revisited her earliest credits, working with Diablo Cody dialogue in Juno, her whirlwind casting process for Y: The Last Man and so much more!