The Blade Runner 2099 series at Amazon Prime Video is underway.
Most details about the TV series, which will star Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer, are being kept under wraps. Ridley Scott, director of the original 1982 film Blade Runner, first revealed the television series was in the works in November 2021. Amazon joined the fold and announced it was in development in February 2022, and the series was formally greenlit in September 2022.
This series will be the seventh installment of the Blade Runner franchise, following the original movie; the 2017 sequel starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford Blade Runner 2049; the 2017 trilogy of short films Blade Runner Black Out 2022, 2036: Nexus Dawn, and 2048: Nowhere to Run; and the 2021 anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
Here’s everything we know so far about the latest addition to the Blade Runner universe.
What Is The Series About?
The original Blade Runner was based on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick and is set in a dystopian Los Angeles in 2019 where synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered to work on space colonies. However, when a fugitive group of advanced replicants escape to Earth, a special police force known as blade runners are responsible for tracking them down and terminally “retiring” them. The sequel film takes place 30 years later when a blade runner discovers he is the son of an experimental replicant and a former blade runner (the main character from the original, reprised by Ford), furthering the movement for replicant freedom.
Not much is known about the characters of the upcoming series, but it has been confirmed that Yeoh will be playing a replicant named Olwen who is nearing the end of her artificial life. Schafer will be playing Cora, a woman who finds herself engulfed in the conspiracy of their world alongside Olwen.
While exact plot details have yet to be released, it is known that the series will take place after the events of the original Blade Runner and the sequel Blade Runner 2049.
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Who’s In The Cast?
While Yeoh and Schafer were the first to be announced as the leads, the series has since rounded out its cast with the additions of Dimitri Abold and Lewis Gribben as series regulars, as well as Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, and Matthew Needham in recurring guest star roles.
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How Is Ridley Scott Involved?
The series itself was created by Silk Luisa, but Scott is serving as executive producer, just as he did for the sequel film Blade Runner 2049 which was direct by Denis Villeneuve.
David W. Tucker and Clayton Krueger of Scott Free Productions executive produce. Alcon Entertainment co-founders Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson also executive produce, as will Alcon’s president of television Ben Roberts. Tom Spezialy, Richard Sharkey, Michael Green, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, and Isa Dick Hackett also executive produce. Jonathan van Tulleken will direct the first two episodes and executive produce, and Steven Johnson is a co-executive producer.
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When Will Filming Take Place?
While filming was originally set to begin in 2023, production was postponed to April 2024 due the SAG-AFTRA strike and was most recently reported to have commenced official filming in June 2024. The series is currently in production in Prague, with plans to also shoot in Barcelona. Filming is scheduled to continue through the end of the year.
When Will The Series Premiere?
No release date has been announced by the streamer, but based on production schedule, it’s projected that the series might debut on Prime Video by late 2025.