Amazon Studios has officially announced the production of a new live-action series set in the Blade Runner universe, Blade Runner 2099. A follow-up to the 2017 film Blade Runner 2049, the series will be directed by Ridley Scott, who directed the original Blade Runner film from 18092. Blade Runner 2049 was a sequel to this film, and Blade Runner 2099 will serve as a direct follow-up from that point.
Silka Luisa, showrunner of Apple TV+’s upcoming Elisabeth Moss-fronted drama series Shining Girls, will serve as writer and executive producer of Blade Runner 2099, which will come from Alcon Entertainment in association with Scott Free Productions and Amazon Studios.
The project marks the first official Blade Runner live-action series. Although it is in priority development at Amazon Studios, there is no official script or release date shared at this time. The only other official Blade Runner series is Blade Runner: Black Lotus, an anime series that debuted late last year on Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. It was set in 2032 and centers around a female replicant voiced by Jessica Henwick.
The original Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was set in a dystopian LA in the year 2019. Synthetic humans known as replicants were bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies, but when a fugitive group of advanced replicants escaped back to Earth, a cop – played by Harrison Ford – reluctantly agrees to hunt them down. The film also starred Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.
The 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which is set in the year 2049, starred Ryan Gosling as a replicant blade runner who uncovers a secret that threatens to destabilize all of society. Ford and Olmos reprised their roles from the original, alongside the new additions of Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto.
As one can likely glean from the title, Blade Runner 2099 will take place set 50 years later, though the exact details of the story, characters, and setting have not been revealed at this time.
