A Blade Runner TV show is in the works at Amazon Studios, the media giant has confirmed, with the original film’s director Ridley Scott on board as executive producer.
Blade Runner 2099 will be a limited series, and is envisioned as a sequel to the original 1982 film and its 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Silka Luisa, who has worked on Halo and adapted and worked as showrunner on the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller Shining Girls, will serve as showrunner on Blade Runner 2099.
Alcon Entertainment, which holds the rights to Blade Runner, said Luisa has developed a “provocative storyline” for the show.
“We recognise that we have a very high bar to meet with this next installment [sic],” Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, co-CEOs and co-founders of Alcon, said in a statement. “Together with Silka and our partners at Amazon, and Scott Free Productions, we hope that we can live up to that standard and delight audiences with the next generation of Blade Runner.”
Amazon Studios’ head of global television, Vernon Sanders, called Scott’s 1982 film “one of the greatest and most influential science-fiction movies of all time”.
“We are honoured to be able to present this continuation of the Blade Runner franchise, and are confident that by teaming up with Ridley, Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and the remarkably talented Silka Luisa, Blade Runner 2099 will uphold the intellect, themes and spirit of its film predecessors,” Sanders said.
Amazon first announced it was developing Blade Runner 2099 in February. The series will be the first live-action treatment of Blade Runner for television; an anime series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, was broadcast on Adult Swim in the US last year. That show, which is set in 2032, received mixed reviews.
Blade Runner 2099 is the latest big bet for Amazon after The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The first season of the fantasy blockbuster cost a reported $465m to develop and make.
