Blade Runner 2099 Finally Reveals First Look, And Confirms the Status of Franchise Cameos

Blade Runner was a cult hit on the big screen for decades. Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel flopped at the box office and earned mixed critical reception, but became a beloved movie to many, setting the stage for Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and director Denis Villeneuve’s sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Though that film also failed to live up to expectations, that hasn’t stopped the franchise from moving forward, with a TV spinoff, Blade Runner 2099, announced way back in 2022. Four years later, though, the series is finally on its way to Prime Video.

Entertainment Weekly has the first look at Blade Runner 2099 with official photos and details about the plot, plus confirming that a release date later this year is officially in the cards. One of the most important updates they’ve revealed, though, is the involvement of the team that previously put a stamp on the series, with Blade Runner 2099 showrunner Silka Luisa confirming conversations with Blade Runner 2049 writer Michael Green and original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott. “It’s once in a lifetime to have your hero sit down with you and tell you what it was like making your favorite movie,” Luisa said.

Blade Runner 2099 First Look Revealed

“It was really important for Ridley to be a part of the development process,” Luisa revealed. “Because both visually and in terms of story, there are mythological canon points in his film that we’re touching, and it was really important to both get his blessing and have his insight into what his original intentions were.”

The first plot details about Blade Runner 2099 confirm that the fifty years between the last movie and the new series have not been a good time for humans. A replicant uprising resulted in humans becoming second-class citizens and the replicants becoming the main authority. Central to it all will be Michelle Yeoh, playing Olwen, revealed to be a replicant Blade Runner. Opposite her will be Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer as her partner, Cora, a human on the run. Yeoh’s character is on the hunt for “missing rogue replicants” while also coming to terms with the end of her life as a replicant being soon.

A big question fans may be having about the series, though, is if Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and Ryan Gosling’s K will be making any kind of appearance in the series. According to Luisa, though, the series being so far in the future means “obviously none of the same characters are around.” As a result, don’t expect any surprise appearances from these two.

The series will deviate from the previous entries in the series in one major way, trading in the dark and gloomy rain of the films for something that Luisa calls “sunshine noir.”

“You’re still very much in the Blade Runner world, but the show is about a birth. It’s about a birth of a city. It’s about a birth of a replicant era. These characters are discovering who they really are. And so the climate is hot, it’s sticky, it’s sunny. We’re on the coast a lot. We’re in Santa Monica a lot. So it’s like you’re seeing Ridley’s texture, but you’re seeing it in the sunshine noir filter.”

Blade Runner 2099 arrives on Prime Video later this year, with the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the show taking place this Friday.