Warner Brothers pulled no punches for their Blade Runner 2049 panel, they brought a Jared Leto hologram onstage. Blade Runner 2049 was the second film in the Warner Brothers time onstage, and they weren't afraid to wow the audience with one of their cast members taking the stage. Sort of. We managed to see a long haired Leto appear onstage and introduce the panel audience.
The studio are clearly playing up to the technologic setting and cinematography that makes up the backbone of the Blade Runner franchise and what makes it so visually appealing. And since Leto is the one as a hologram, rather than Harrison Ford or Ryan Gosling, it's safe to say that Leto's role has more to do with the replicants and the technology that comes with them. Even though he was absent from SDCC, he still managed to make an impact. They also took the time to showcase the previous trailer that fans have seen, with the rest of the cast commenting on their experiences during filming and how they approached their characters.
Related: Blade Runner 2049 SDCC Experience Brings the Film to the Real-World
During his introduction, Leto cryptically teased that "the future is strange". And if the future is anything like what we've seen in the Blade Runner 2049 trailers, he's definitely not wrong. He also told the audience that the new film is the "sequel we have been waiting for". Hopefully he's not wrong.
HOLOGRAM JARED LETO pic.twitter.com/vf8Z0FwwQ6
— Albert Ching (@albertxii) July 22, 2017
Leto is credited as playing Neander Wallace, a "manipulative replicant manufacturer". So whilst his stage presence looked a little different from the look we saw in the trailers, it makes sense that Warner Bros. is using him as a 'Steve Jobs' type of industrialist. Even though it was just an introduction, it felt a little reminiscent of the Guy Pearce TED promotional videos from when Prometheus was gearing up for release.
Obviously there are no current plot details available, we'll have to wait a while for answers. But we're still unsure as to whether Wallace will meet both Officer K and Deckard or just one of them. But since the panel teased that Los Angeles is divided in two, humans and replicants, it wouldn't be a stretch to see Leto (a replicant manufacturer) and Deckard together in a scene. Whether that's an indication of the mystery of who Deckard is leading on from the original film, we'll have to wait and see.