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Despite being set in the same world, 50 years later, Blade Runner 2099 is not “directly connected” to Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, and won’t address the game-changing events of that movie, according to showrunner Silka Luisa.
“No, [Blade Runner 2049] is not directly connected to the show,” Luisa told SFX magazine, which features the Prime Video limited series on the new cover. “What was an important early mandate was that audiences could come to the show not having seen the films, and this could stand alone.”
A quick reminder: Blade Runner 2049 starred Ryan Gosling as a Replicant, K, who uncovers something extraordinary over the course of the movie: that Harrison Ford’s Deckard (who may or may not be a Replicant, depending on who you ask) and Sean Young’s Rachael gave birth to a daughter, Ana Stelline. This makes Ana the first Replicant-born child, a fact that would undoubtedly have a profound impact on the cyberpunk world.
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Only, Blade Runner 2099 is going in a different direction, telling a story set in the aftermath of a Replicant uprising that sees the engineered humans now in control, demoting humans to second-class citizens. Michelle Yeoh plays Olwen, a Replicant Blade Runner nearing the end of her life, while Hunter Schaefer plays Cora, a human pretending to be a Replicant.
“This could be an introduction to the world of Blade Runner, and it wouldn’t be dependent on you having watched 2049, [or] you having watched the first Blade Runner,” Luisa continues. “In that sense, we had to divorce ourselves from the narrative.”
It makes a certain amount of sense that 2099 isn’t simply dealing with the aftermath of 2049 – half a century is a long time, after all, and much will have changed. Plus, it doesn’t discount the idea that the events of Blade Runner 2049 could have drastically altered the course of history. Perhaps it was the miracle of Ana Stelline that eventually led to the Replicant uprising. Either way, just don’t expect K, Deckard or Ana Stelline to appear in Blade Runner 2099.
Blade Runner 2099 releases on Prime Video on November 25, with all eight episodes dropping on the same day. For more, check out of our list of upcoming TV shows, and get up to speed with our Blade Runner timeline.
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