Ridley Scott's live-action Blade Runner sequel series, titled Blade Runner 2099, is officially happening at Prime Video. In 1982, director Ridley Scott adapted Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as a movie that divided audiences and bombed at the box office. However, Blade Runner became recognized as one of the best sci-fi movies in history as time passed and Scott continued tinkering with it through Blade Runner's multiple cuts. Thirty-five years later, Denis Villeneuve brought Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard back in Blade Runner 2049, which starred Ryan Gosling as K. Despite earning rave reviews, the movie struggled to become profitable at the box office.
Plans to expand the Blade Runner franchise after Blade Runner 2049 have included a move to television. After HBO Max's animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus, reporters began to surface that Scott was developing the franchise's first live-action show. News of a live-action Blade Runner sequel show first surfaced in late 2021, but it was in February of this year that Prime Video entered the equation. The streaming service began putting a writer's room together at the time, led by Silka Luisa (Shining Girls), to figure out if the Blade Runner 2049 sequel TV series would move forward.
It has now been revealed by Deadline that Prime Video is moving forward with the Blade Runner sequel show, Blade Runner 2099, with Ridley Scott producing the limited series. Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is seemingly not involved in the continuation. It is the first live-action Blade Runner show ever made. Few details are known about the story, but Blade Runner 2099's title confirms that it will be set 50 years after the Blade Runner sequel movie. There is no release date known at this time or expected start date for production.
Prime Video moving forward with the Blade Runner sequel show marks the latest attempt by the streaming service to bring major movie franchises to life on the small screen. It is the second Warner Bros. movie franchise that Prime Video has since gained access to through television. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's viewership recently became Prime Video's most watched premiere, proving they have what it takes to bring big-budget blockbusters to streaming. It should not be surprising that Prime Video is now moving forward with plans for another massive TV show based on a popular movie franchise. And after spending over $400 million on The Rings of Power season 1, the Blade Runner TV series should also be able to secure a budget high enough to do the show right.
It will certainly be worth keeping an eye on how Blade Runner 2099's development unfolds. Questions will continue to mount about how heavily the series will connect to the movies. Ryan Gosling's K can not return based on Blade Runner 2049's ending, and setting the sequel show 50 years in the future will likely result in not many familiar characters from the movies returning. Since Ridley Scott has already expanded his sci-fi movie franchises in unexpected ways (look at his Alien prequel movies), it should be exciting to see how Blade Runner 2099 further broadens the Blade Runner franchise.
Source: Deadline