Welcome to a future we no longer control.
Prime Video unveiled the first trailer and release date for Blade Runner 2099 on Friday in front of more than 6,000 screaming fans at San Diego Comic-Con. The long-gestating TV project is billed as a limited series, which presumably means the eight episodes will tell a complete story.
Cast members Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer attended the Hall H panel alongside showrunner-executive producer Silka Luisa and EPs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. The cyberpunk concept is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick, which was later expanded into films and other media.
Schafer of Euphoria fame said the first two Blade Runner movies “broke [her] brain.” However, she initially didn’t want to return to the grind of television because “it’s a really hardcore process.” The actress changed her mind after an in-depth plot discussion with Luisa.
“I came over and she showed me everything she’d been working on, and it was like, ‘Oh, duh, yeah,'” she told the Comic-Con crowd. “This is one of the most intense jobs I’ve ever done. Physically, it was really demanding, and so that was obviously scary. But I’m so thankful I said yes.”
Oscar winner Yeoh revealed that she said yes to the role of a Replicant because, “I really wanted to explore a character I would have never had an opportunity to play — [someone] who was not human. But what is being human, after all, at the end of the day?” She then called her young co-star a “fearless action hero.”
Read on for everything to know about Blade Runner 2099.
THE CAST
Joining Yeoh and Schafer in the main cast are Dimitri Abold and Lewis Gribben. Recurring guest stars include Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, Matthew Needham, Tom Burke, and Maurizio Lombardi. Character names and descriptions are yet to be revealed.
THE PLOT
From Prime Video: “Fifty years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity. Cora (Schafer), a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen (Yeoh), a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse their fragile city.”
THE TRAILER
On July 24, Prime Video unveiled the first-look trailer for Blade Runner 2099. In the 90-second video, Schafer’s character narrates, “We already fought a war. We lost. Replicants keep taking it all away. How much longer until we have nothing, until we are nothing?” Their words are complemented by post-apocalyptic shots of earth a century from now, with Yeoh’s character ultimately chiming in: “The old world forever fights to come back. Humans want what was taken from them. But it’s our time now.”
THE RELEASE DATE
Mark your calendars for Nov. 25, as that’s when Prime Video will release all eight episodes of Blade Runner 2099. It’s been a long time coming, as the show was originally teased in November 2021 by producer Ridley Scott, with the show title first being revealed in February 2022.
THE CREATIVES
Silka Luisa serves as showrunner and executive producer along with fellow EPs Ridley Scott, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Ben Roberts, David W. Zucker, Clayton Krueger, Tom Spezialy, Richard Sharkey, Michael Green, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, and Isa Dick Hackett. Jonathan van Tulleken is an executive producer and directed the first two episodes.
AWARDS HISTORY
The original 1982 film received nominations for Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects. The 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, won two Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, and was also nominated for Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
However, the franchise is untested at TV awards shows. The jury is still out on whether Emmy voters will connect with Blade Runner 2099 the same way Oscar voters did. We’ll all find out at the 2027 Emmys.
