With Exodus: Gods And Kings opening this week, Ridley Scott is once more back in the limelight – as are Prometheus 2 and the Blade Runner sequel. Long-rumored, the two films seem to have been in the offing for years, but Scott has been rather short on the details. That’s changing, though, as the director revealed to MTV News (via Screen Rant) some of what he has planned on the two films.
Discussing the possibilities for Prometheus 2, here’s what Scott had to say about the return of Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and android David (Michael Fassbender):
You have to. You can’t have a person go off into the galaxy and have a person who’s still got his head off. Once that head goes back on, he’s really dangerous, but he’s also very seductive. So maybe he’ll persuade her to help him put the head back.
So Shaw and David will definitely return (no surprise there), and David will still be charming his way out of trouble, body or no body. The bigger question about Prometheus 2, though, is how Scott will resolve some of the unanswered questions from the first film. A major criticism of Prometheus was its lack of resolution, despite a fascinating set-up.
Moving on to discuss the Blade Runner 2, Scott once more confirmed that the script is done. What’s more, there will be none of that voice-over from Deckard (Harrison Ford) that so marred the original release of Blade Runner back in 1982. It sounds like Ford will be back, though:
Harrison and I really get on rather well. I sent him (the script), and he said ‘That’s the best thing I’ve ever read.’ So it’s very relevant to what happened in the first one. I’m not just doing a sequel with lots of action and see how far we can with the special effects. Because you can’t really. With Blade Runner, we landed on a somehow very credible future. It’s very difficult to change that because it’s been so influential with everything else.
Of course, we have numerous versions of Blade Runner still running around: from the original theatrical release in the US, to several recuts that Scott claims represent his real vision. Whether the next Blade Runner film will remain true to its iconic roots remains to be seen; it’s been quite a long time since we entered that world.
Sequels are always a thorny issue, and they can be either amazing or truly disappointing. Prometheus was certainly set up to leave the possibility of a sequel open, but Blade Runner is a perfectly good standalone film. Ridley Scott is going to have a rough time justifying that one; still, it will be interesting to see how he manages it.
We’ll keep you updated on the future of the Prometheus and Blade Runner sequels as more details become available.
