Video games news, releases, esports and culture — all the biggest gaming stories in one place.
‘Blade Runner 2099’ Showrunner Reveals the Sci-Fi Secrets She Learned from Ridley Scott
Prime Video's Blade Runner 2099, a 10-episode miniseries premiering on 25 November, sees showrunner Silka Luisa expand the franchise 50 years beyond Denis Villeneuve's 2017 film Blade Runner 2049 and 80 years after Ridley Scott's original 1982 classic. Speaking to Polygon ahead of the launch, Luisa discussed the challenge of creating fresh science fiction within a genre so thoroughly shaped by Scott's original, and explained how producer Alcon Entertainment insisted the series stand apart from the films while remaining within the same canon, giving her creative freedom to tell a standalone story.
The series imagines a future in which replicants have overtaken humans as Earth's dominant species, with Michelle Yeoh playing Olwen, an ageing replicant aware her time is running out, and Hunter Schafer as Cora, a human posing as a replicant to survive. Luisa confirmed Harrison Ford will not appear, distancing the show further from the films' established characters, and described working closely with Alcon and Scott to shape a visually distinct dystopian Los Angeles that avoids simply imitating earlier Blade Runner aesthetics.
In short
- Blade Runner 2099 miniseries arrives on Prime Video 25 November.
- Set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, with new characters.
- Showrunner Silka Luisa confirms Harrison Ford will not appear.
Explained simply
Blade Runner is a science-fiction story about a future where human-like beings called replicants live alongside people. The original film, directed by Ridley Scott, came out in 1982; Denis Villeneuve continued the story in Blade Runner 2049, set decades later.
The new series is set further ahead, in a world where replicants have become more numerous than humans. Its central characters are Olwen, an ageing replicant played by Michelle Yeoh, and Cora, a human played by Hunter Schafer who disguises herself as a replicant.
Showrunner Silka Luisa is creating a new story within the same fictional world as the films. The series’ relationship to those earlier works matters because it must fit the shared story while establishing its own characters and setting.