When Duncan Jones mentioned a couple of days ago on Twitter that he was going to do a comic-book movie, most followers naturally assumed he meant Marvel or DC; certainly, he’s the kind of director adept at both concepts and spectacle that would seem like a natural fit for both. And even though its box-office take was unimpressive, the heavily underrated Warcraft movie showed he could do some serious world-building on a large scale.
In a video posted to Twitter today, however, he makes it clear that he’s more inclined towards the “Mega-verse,” that future world from which Judge Dredd hails alongside all the other stories of the English comic 2000 AD. Aside from the two Dredd movies, this grim and satirical sci-fi scape remains a relatively untapped resource for films–perhaps because much of it is too cynical for Hollywood–though the 1990 cult film Hardware is also an adaptation.
As promised… pic.twitter.com/6y3pzn2Cn1
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 15, 2018
The unique hairdo that he reveals is thought by most who’ve seen it to be a reference to Tor Cyan, a character spun off of Rogue Trooper, one of 2000 AD‘s signature characters. Before Watchmen‘s Dave Gibbons was drawing Dr. Manhattan, he was giving life to this blue-skinned muscleman, a genetically engineered soldier fighting a planetary civil war on a world where the atmosphere has long since become toxic.
Mohawked Tor Cyan is a medical shuttle driver, who ultimately discovers he has a connection to the Rogue Troopers–something you’d think the blue skin would have given right away. Rogue Trooper is by far the better known title, so it seems most likely Jones would do a Rogue Trooper movie that Cyan happens to be a character in…though it’s possible he could just leap straight into a Tor Cyan solo film. Until we know what the approximate budget is, it’s hard to guess.
Are you excited for Jones to take on a future war? Or are we way off base, with the hint meaning something else? Let us know what you think below.
Images: 2000 AD