This Is The Role Karl Urban Would Love To Play Again

Karl Urban has shown a knack for claiming important supporting roles in some of the more critically adored sci-fi fantasy franchises to come out of Hollywood. In doing so, he's also become one of the more respected and sought-after character actors in the business. In the past couple of decades alone, Urban was tapped by Peter Jackson to play Eomer in the last two chapters of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, hired to play Bones in J.J. Abrams' recent big screen Star Trek revival, and joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the conflicted Asgardian Skurge in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok. 

Still, of all the roles Urban has claimed over the years (including his current gig on The Boys), there's one he'd most love to play again on the big screen: the badass cop of the future he portrayed in the 2012 sci-fi action spectacular Dredd. 

If you happened to miss out on the film back when it was in theaters — and judging by Dredd's anemic box office, most of you did — the film is based on the long-running IPC comic Judge Dredd, and found Urban playing a ruthless law man authorized to act as judge, jury, and executioner in his crime-fighting endeavors. It's the sort of tough-guy-with-a-brain type role Urban was born to play, and in the film, he more than delivered the goods as the vengeful "judge." 

Urban has been quite vocal about his desire to suit up as Judge Dredd for a sequel, and the actor reaffirmed those desires during a recent appearance at C2E2, telling an inquisitive fan, "Listen, I would love to make it, I'm on the record saying that a bunch of times." Unfortunately, the actor followed those sentiments by adding, "I don't know if that's gonna happen."  

While the underperformance of the original film is an obvious reason for the lack of a Dredd sequel, it seems another hurdle may be signaling that Urban's time as Judge Dredd done. The actor actually pointed to the Mega City One TV series currently in the works as a key reason a new Dredd movie is not likely to happen. 

"I think that the guys that own the rights to Dredd, Rebellion, I think they're developing something called Mega-City One and it would just be great to see more Dredd, whether it's with me or not, it doesn't matter," he said. "I'm a fan of Dredd and there's so many great stories there. I'd love to see them. And I have no doubt that, someday, someone will make it. It's just a matter of time."

While Urban's enthusiasm for the character is obvious (and, frankly, quite refreshing), those comments are certainly not encouraging of the actor's possible return to the role. That being said, Urban was reportedly in talks to appear in the Mega City One series as recently as a couple of years ago, so it seems only time will tell if he gets to reprise his most coveted role or not.  

Either way, it sounds like we might still be getting some new Judge Dredd content sometime in the future. So if you're wondering exactly what Mega City One is, the series is essentially being envisioned as a futuristic cop show set within sprawling city the infamous Judge Dredd calls home. It's also said to expand on the world to the point that Dredd himself is not the central character. 

Obviously, that set-up leaves ample room for Dredd to play a key role on the series. The only question is whether we'll be seeing Karl Urban's face behind the Judge's iconic helmet or not.