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Over the past few months, you’ve probably noticed how many cinematic universes have expanded simultaneously to include movies and TV shows. Warner Bros. gave us The Penguin, a spin-off series of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and Dune: Prophecy, a prequel to Denis Villeneuve’s two sci-fi films. Harry Potter is getting a new series adaptation, not to mention the mysterious movie set in the Game of Thrones universe.
Disney isn’t far behind its rival, working furiously on the Alien: Earth series to expand the franchise around Xenomorph. One of the few famous universes that doesn’t have too many episodes is Ridley Scott’s. Based on Philip K. Dick’s 1982 novel: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner has only seen two major sequels.
Created by Villeneuve, Blade Runner: 2049 was released in 2017, along with three short films that filled in the gaps between the two films. The anime Blade Runner: Black Lotus and several comic issues were released in 2021, but not much has happened in the world of androids and their hunters in recent decades.
However, Amazon Prime Video wants to change that with the TV series Blade Runner 2099. The show takes viewers even further into a dystopian future full of humanoid machines and their existential dilemmas.
When will Blade Runner 2099 be released?
For now, it is unknown when the series will premiere on Prime Video. Production started in May 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic, and is expected to end in December 2024. The show’s creators definitely need to hurry, as filming for Euphoria season 3 will begin in January 2025, and Hunter Schafer, one of the stars of Blade Runner 2099, will be much needed on set.
Given the time required for post-production and marketing, the series likely won’t debut until late 2025/early 2026 at the earliest, even if filming for Blade Runner is completed as planned.
Who is the team behind Blade Runner 2099?
Silka Luisa, a writer on Halo and Shining Girls, is a showrunner, while Ridley Scott is an executive producer on the series. Jonathan van Tulleken, director of Shōgun, will make the first two episodes.
What will be the plot of Blade Runner 2099?
As the title of the series suggests, the story takes place fifty years after the events of Blade Runner 2049. According to ComicBookMovie.com, the series synopsis reads:
In 2099 Los Angeles, Cora lived her entire life on the run, a chameleon forced to assume countless identities. To secure a stable future for her brother, she adopts a definitive identity and is forced to team up with Olwen, a Replicant facing the end of her life. The two become involved in a widening conspiracy that poses an existential threat to a city fighting to be reborn.
In the 1982 film, Harrison Ford plays a detective (or a blade runner, as they are called in this universe), Rick Deckard, who is responsible for capturing and killing escaped androids. While investigating four dangerous fugitive robots (so-called Replicants), he traverses dystopian Los Angeles and meets its bizarre inhabitants along the way. He meets a brilliant creator of artificial intelligence and begins a romance with the mysterious Rachel, played by Sean Young.
In the 2017 sequel, the story follows another blade runner, K, himself a replicant, played by Ryan Gosling. Thirty years in the future, Rick Deckard and Rachel are legends whose subsequent fates remain unknown. K is sent to investigate the case of a female Replicant who died after a C-section. While hunting for her child, K reaches the end of the civilized world and follows the androids’ freedom movement.
For now, it’s unclear how the events of the two feature films apply to the plot of Blade Runner 2099. Some have speculated that Ryan Gosling’s K will have a cameo in the series, but the show’s creator has not confirmed this rumor.
Who is the cast for Blade Runner 2099?
The main character of the series is played by Michelle Yeohwhose career has skyrocketed in recent years. Rumor has it that the actress, known for her performances in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Wicked, will star as a Replicant named Olwen.
She continues to collaborate on screen Hunter Schaferknown for her role as Jules in Euphoria, but also for her performances in the films The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Cuckoo and Kinds of Kindness. Details about her role in the series are being kept under wraps.
The cast of the series also includes Tom Burkewho we saw not so long ago as Praetorian Jack in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Fans of House of the Dragons will also recognize it Matthew Needhamwho played the infamous Ser Larys Strong in the HBO series.
The rest of the cast looks like this:
- Dimitri Abold
- Lewis Gribben
- Lewis Gribben
- Katelyn Rose Downey
- Daniel Rigby
- Johnny Harris
- Amy Lennox
- Sheila Atim
- Maurizio Lombardi
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