Prime Video’s New 8-Episode Sci-Fi Series Continues a Modern Masterpiece
Amazon MGM is developing an eight-episode limited series, *Blade Runner 2099*, extending the franchise’s story into a new era. Set 50 years after *Blade Runner 2049*, it shifts the format from film to television and imagines replicants as the dominant species, with two uneasy allies caught in a struggle over a dangerous secret.
Michelle Yeoh plays Olwen, an ageing replicant nearing the end of her life, while Hunter Schafer plays Cora, a fugitive human living under a Blade Runner identity. They pursue a runaway replicant, but the target’s identity and the pair’s trust in each other become uncertain. Ridley Scott is an executive producer; showrunner Silka Louisa, co-writer Michael Green and *Blade Runner 2049* production designer Paul Inglis are also involved. The article gives a release date of 25 November 2026.
In short
- *Blade Runner 2099* is planned as an eight-episode series.
- The story is set 50 years after *Blade Runner 2049*.
- Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer lead the new story.
Explained simply
Blade Runner is a science-fiction story about replicants: artificial beings made to look like humans. Earlier films explored the blurred boundary between people and replicants, and the ethics of creating beings who can think and feel.
Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve, continued the story of the 1982 film, with Ridley Scott among its producers. The new series is set decades later, when replicants have become dominant, and follows Olwen and Cora as they search for a runaway replicant amid doubts about who their target is and whether they can trust each other.
The change from film to television gives the story more time to follow its characters and the world they inhabit. Its setting and cast make it part of a long-running franchise, while raising questions about identity, power and what separates humans from artificial life.