Towards the end of November last year, Ridley Scott confirmed that he was in the midst of developing a live-action TV show set in the Blade Runner universe, but that was pretty much the beginning and end of what he had to say on the matter.
Until today, that is, after it was revealed by Deadline that sequel series Blade Runner 2099 is officially in the works for Prime Video, with Scott executive producing alongside filmmaker Silka Luisa, who will also write the teleplays. However, an interesting caveat is that the original director could end up helming at least an episode or two himself depending on the timeline, which would mark Scott’s first-ever stint behind the camera on a small screen project.
As you’ve no doubt inferred from the title, Blade Runner 2099 will be set half a century after Denis Villenueve’s acclaimed box office bomb, which was once designed as the launchpad for further installments that failed to materialize once the numbers came in.
What’s old is almost always new again in Hollywood, especially when it comes to legacy and nostalgia-driven IP, so we can’t say we’re too shocked that Blade Runner 2099 is becoming a reality at long last, 40 years after we first met Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard.