With the end of 2000 AD‘s winter hiatus closing in, we take a look ahead at what to expect from the British weekly anthology and its Judge Dredd Megazine monthly sister title in the year ahead. [Don’t forget to check out our review of 2025]
MAJOR HAPPENINGS IN JUDGE DREDD
Three major Judge Dredd storylines are on the horizon – immediately starting in January with Dredd co-creator John Wagner returning alongside Mike Perkins for Death of a Judge, beginning prog 2464. Rumours have been swirling for months that Wagner may actually kill off Dredd. Whatever happens, a Wagner-scripted Dredd tale nowadays almost always has some form of repercussions for the character and his world.
Summer 2026 will see the culmination of horror threads sewn into the Judge Dredd series by Ken Niemand and Nick Percival particularly in 2025 storylines The Shift (prog 2418-2425) and Messengers (2460-2462), but also seeded as far back as 2023’s A Matter of Life & Dredd (prog 2362). According to an AIPT interview, this “Mega Event” will take place in both the weekly anthology and the Judge Dredd Megazine with two parallel stories focusing on Dredd, his younger clone/surrogate son Rico and former protégé Giant. Called The Oubliette and The Black Tower, they will be entirely written by Ken Niemand, with Nick Percival, Dan Cornwell, and Jake Lynch on art. The Black Tower (in the Meg) will run in tandem to events in The Oubliette (in 2000 AD). Cornwell and Lynch will cover the Oubliette side of things, with The Black Tower handled by Percival.
Fans of the critically acclaimed A Better World, will see the next instalment in that ongoing saga this year as Arthur Wyatt, Rob Williams, and Henry Flint reteam for The New Future. Not much is known but considering how much of a punch A Better World had, this should be interesting.
MORE ROGUE TROOPER
Guaranteed to show up next year – besides Judge Dredd, of course – will be more Rogue Trooper. With the movie on the horizon, 2000 AD will have regular glimpses of Rogue and his world throughout the year, either in a new miniseries/storyline, or glimpses via the Nu Earth War Tales line of worldbuilding vignettes. Announced in the last Prog of 2025 (#2463) was a new Venus Bluegenes series, focusing on the eponymous female Genetic Infantryman (referred to as a ‘GI doll’) and sometime love interest of Rogue. Unburned will be written by Torunn Grønbekk with Silvia Califano on art. Venus hasn’t been seen in the pages of 2000 AD in a long time (outside of a role in 2024’s Nordland Rising crossover), so this could be an interesting new take.
As for the movie itself, writer and director Duncan Jones posted an update on Bluesky, December 20, saying that work on the movie is complete. Expect a trailer with a release date to drop any time in the next few months.
EVEN MORE INJECTIONS OF THRILL POWER
Immediately entering 2026, 2000 AD will feature the second parts of Peter Milligan & Kieran McKeown‘s new series The Discarded, plus the second full length serial of David Barnett & Lee Milmore’s offbeat modern fantasy about one guy and his demon dog Herne & Shuck. The recent comeback of Young Death in December’s prog 2463 will continue with intermittent one-shot appearances with artists Tom Foster and Mike Dowling having a turn at depicting the early days of fan favourite Dredd nemesis, Judge Death.
Expect more intermittent appearances of Dan Abnett & Tazio Bettin‘s fan favourite series Azimuth this year. Prog 2463 had a major shift including a revelation about the origins of a major series character. Azimuth will initially carry on in Jprog 2464, but whether the immediate next part of the story lasts more than an issue or two in 2000 AD isn’t showing up in our tea leaves. Those a bit out of the loop can expect a collection in June 2026 with the release of Azimuth vol 1, which will cover the entire series to date.
Over the course of 2025, the prog has regularly hinted at future serials for the anthology with either its Thrills of the Future spot of teaser images, or hints in the editorial. Inbound are the following:
- The Fall of Deadworld: Justice, by Kek-W & Dave Kendall – the next arc begins in this ongoing horror alt reality series featuring a group of survivors trying to stay alive as the Dark Judges first emerge. The last full arc was 2024’s Retribution (published across progs 2352-55, 2357-59, and 2370-74).
- Charlie Mike, by Dan Abnett & Brian Corcoran – little known about this one. It could be a brand new series, could be a three part 3riller, or it could be a Future Shock. Whatever it is, it should be interesting
- Brink: The Call of the Void, by Dan Abnett & INJ Culbard – the return of the space colony police procedural. Habitat security officer Bridget Kurtis is on secondment to the Special Detail Taskforce should be arriving at Luna Habitat to investigate what happened.
- Helium: Red October, by Ian Edginton & D’Israeli. The third series of airpunk saga Helium. At the end of the second series the Commonwealth of humanity that resides above the poisoned cloud covering the planet, is preparing to make war with the concealed city of Ris. Our leads have been pressganged into becoming spies.
- The Out Book V, by Dan Abnett & Mark Harrison. Return of another popular series. At the end of Book IV in prog 2417, Cyd Finlea had set out to find her daughter Joey. Having gone to the outer reaches of The Out and glimpsed The Up, Cyd now hopes to somehow get to The Down to save her.
- Fiends of the Eastern Front: Dracula, by Ian Edginton and Nick Percival. After a very intriguing Fiends of the Western Front in 2025, it seems instead of continuing that arc, we are reverting back to the original series title – and another period of Constanta’s immortal life – as he confronts the most famous vampire of them all.
- Silver returns for Book 3 of this vampires vs aliens series. By Michael Carroll & Joe Currie. The collection of the first two arcs has just been released
- Nightmare New York by Kek-W & David Roach. After a one-shot in prog 2456, it appears the next arc jumps forward fifty years, as protagonist Lillian is set to partner with other 2000 AD Kek-W & David Road serial Saphir‘s Inspector Mucha and Lady Sofia Corundum in the year 1899 to foil a world ending plot
Judge Dredd Megazine
The first monthly Megazine of 2026 (#488) will hit shelves on January 21, continuing the slate established in October 2025’s anniversary refresh (#485). Latest stories in the Armitage, Dreadnoughts, Megatropolis and Anderson, Psi Division series roll into their fourth parts but one new story will immediately join the lineup – John Wagner, Alan Grant & Dan Cornwell‘s independent scifi-soccer comic Rok of the Reds – after spending all of 2025 reprinting the first two miniseries – finally begins the long awaited new never before seen arc: Rok the World.
Further into 2026, Devlin Waugh is set to make a return with new story Ceremony, by Aleš Kot & Antonio Fuso and a new arc will begin for Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade‘s fan favourite frontier series Lawless.
2000 AD’s weekly returns January 7, and the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine will return January 21. Both can be found at participating UK comic shops and newsstands; internationally in print and digital via the 2000 AD webshop; and are also set to be orderable in the US through Lunar Distribution.
