Michelle Yeoh has revealed that viewers will not need to have watched Ridley Scott's original Blade Runner or its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 to follow the new Prime Video series Blade Runner 2099, which she says is designed as an accessible, standalone story. This matters because it lowers the barrier for newer audiences unfamiliar with the franchise's dense mythology, while still aiming to satisfy longtime fans of the cyberpunk saga, as the series prepares for its November debut.

Set 50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, the limited series depicts a world in which Replicants now rule over the humans who once oppressed them. Yeoh plays Olwen, a Replicant Blade Runner running out of time, alongside Hunter Schafer as Cora, a human fugitive disguised as a Replicant, with the pair hunting a gang of rogue Replicants together. Created by Silka Luisa with input from Scott, the show is intended as a one-off story with no direct ties to Rick Deckard or Officer K's narratives, something Yeoh discussed in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival while promoting her film The Surgeon.