Blade Runner 2049 Will Be Rated R

12/21/2016 11:52 am EST

It has been 35 years since Blade Runner debuted in theaters, and apparently the sequel isn't pulling any punches.

Blade Runner 2049 will be Rated R, just like the original Blade Runner. The new was confirmed by director Denis Villeneuve, who said that is a fact that his backers aren't letting him forget about.

"My producers are finding it fun to remind me that it will be one of the most expensive R-rated independent feature films ever made," Villeneuve told Screen Daily.

Considering the original Blade Runner was R-rated, there's a pretty good chance that Blade Runner 2049 was also intended to follow suit. The success of the R-rated superhero movie Deadpool in early 2016 probably didn't hurt either.

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Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to Blade Runner, the 1982 neo-noir science fiction movie inspired by Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Blade Runner 2049 is directed by Denis Villeneuve, co-produced by Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green.

Blade Runner 2049 stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Sylvia Hoeks, Ana de Armas, Carla Juri, David Dastmalchian, Barkhad Abdi, Lennie James, and Jared Leto.

Blade Runner 2049 opens Oct. 7, 2017.