Do androids dream of electric sheep? Do Empire readers dream of Blade Runner 2099? We certainly do — and have done ever since Amazon’s TV take on Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi world was first announced way back when in 2022. But now, finally, our dreams are tantalisingly close to becoming reality. At Amazon’s Hall H SDCC presentation today, showrunner Silka Luisa (Shining Girls) took to the stage with series leads Michelle Yeoh and Hunter to tease their bold sci-fi sequel series — and reveal the first trailer for what awaits us all on Prime Video this November. Check it out below;
Jaw-slackening, Syd Mead inspired visuals. Bass so heavy it feels like it’s about to swallow you whole. Towering holograms, rusted skylines, and neon-noir inflected existentialism. And it’s all wrapped up in a mystery box involving a runaway who may just have the answers to life, the universe, and everything. Yeah, we’re thinkin’ Blade Runner is back! Set long after the events of Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterwork and Denis Villeneuve’s similarly extraordinary 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, Luisa’s show — the franchise’s first small-screen entry, painted it would seem on a no less grand canvas than its cinematic forebears — is set in a world where replicants have long since taken humanity’s place at the head of the societal order. Returning to Los Angeles, it appears that this new entry in the canon follows an ageing replicant, Olwen (Yeoh), as she reluctantly teams up with Cora (Schafer), a human on the lam from Blade Runners. Where exactly their partnership will take them — and indeed us — is anyone’s guess, but it looks like it’ll be a hell of a journey.
The official synopsis for Blade Runner 2099 — which also stars Dimitri Abold, Matthew Needham, Daniel Rigby, and Lewis Gribben among others — reads: “Fifty years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity. Cora, a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen, a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse their fragile city.”
At a moment where, once more, questions abound surrounding our humanity, the threat of artificial intelligence, and what our place is in an increasingly digital, ever-evolving world, Silka Luisa’s entry into the Blade Runner universe couldn’t be more perfectly times. And we’ll see how Blade Runner 2099 rises to the moment — and ties into the legendary sci-fi franchise’s canon — when it debuts on Prime Video on 25 November. Now if you don’t mind us, we’re off to— cells interlinked… cells interlinked… a system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked…
