Amazon Studios is developing Blade Runner 3 as a TV series but the excitement is somewhat tempered because Denis Villeneuve, the director of Blade Runner 2049, isn't involved in the show. Amazon's potential series, tentatively titled Blade Runner 2099, picks up 50 years after Villeneuve's 2017 film, which starred Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Jared Leto, and Harrison Ford, who reprised his role as Rick Deckard from 1982's Blade Runner. Ridley Scott is on board as an executive producer of Blade Runner 2099 but it's Denis Villeneuve's vision that will be sorely missed.
Blade Runner remains one of the most influential and enduring sci-fi movie franchises despite never being a blockbuster. Adapted from the Philip K. Dick story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", 1982's Blade Runner was directed by Ridley Scott and introduced the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles of 2019 - a world where cops called Blade Runners hunt down androids called Replicants who believe they're human. The stunning cyberpunk design of Blade Runner, with impossibly huge cityscape, flying cars, and grimy streets, inspired numerous imitators and homages. However, it took 35 years for Blade Runner to get a sequel. Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 continued Rick Deckard's story three decades later but centered on K, a Replicant, who believes he was miraculously born instead of made. Blade Runner 2049's eye-popping visuals exceeded the original but it also failed at the box office. The Blade Runner franchise also continues in novels, comic books, video games, and an animated series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus starring Jessica Henwick, launched on Adult Swim in late-2020.
Thus far, Denis Villeneuve isn't involved in Amazon's Blade Runner 3 and that's disappointing. While Ridley Scott set the mold and remains crucial to the franchise as an executive producer, Villeneuve upgraded Blade Runner 2049 in every way and he opened up the universe, its characters, and its stakes while remaining true to Scott's landmark film. Villeneuve brought Blade Runner into the 21st century and his indelible touch would be sorely missed from Blade Runner 2099. The fact that Villeneuve not only survived Blade Runner 2049 bombing but went on to score a box office blockbuster that's just as visionary - Dune - is a testament to the director's immense talent and how much Amazon's Blade Runner 2099 would miss the French Canadian filmmaker.
Preparation for Dune's sequel is likely the reason why Denis Villeneuve isn't currently involved with Blade Runner 3. 2021's Dune was an achievement many sci-fi fans considered impossible and Denis now faces the challenge of duplicating and surpassing Dune's success. Villeneuve is at the top of his game and his directing talents are in demand - including the recently announced Cleopatra film starring Gal Gadot - so he simply may not have time to get involved with Amazon's Blade Runner 3. Yet 84-year-old Ridley Scott is also still directing A-list films like The Last Duel and House of Gucci. If Scott can find room in his schedule to oversee Blade Runner 2099, perhaps Villeneuve can as well.
Denis Villeneuve certainly isn't averse to directing TV shows. He's directing Jake Gyllenhaal in the TV miniseries The Son and Denis is also helming the pilot to the HBO Max spinoff series, Dune: The Sisterhood. With Dune now Denis' franchise spanning movies and TV, perhaps Villeneuve's plate is simply too full at the moment to reunite with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner 2099. He likely trusts the Blade Runner property will be just fine with its original visionary overseeing Amazon's series. But it was Villeneuve's talent that made Blade Runner 2049 an astoundingly immersive (if sorely underappreciated) masterpiece that is arguably better than the original. The tandem of Villeueve and Scott worked wonders. The lack of Denis Villeneuve's fingerprints in Amazon Studios' spinoff show will be Blade Runner 3's, and the audience's, loss.