Amazon has announced a new Blade Runner sequel, set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049. Appropriately titled Blade Runner 2099, this upcoming streaming series is described as a “provocative” follow-up to the films.
Why is Blade Runner 2049 provocative?
Helmed by showrunner Silka Luisa, known for Shining Girls and Halo, 2099 is a limited run series for Amazon Prime. After two beloved movies in the as-of-yet unexploited franchise, this series has a high bar to hit.
Via The Guardian, Blade Runner 2099 is described as having a “provocative storyline” for the franchise by Alcon Entertainment. Whether this will be provocative for fans of the series or just provocative in general was not explained.
Furthermore, the story is said to be fully in-keeping with the existing themes of Blade Runner. For example, the nature of identity, worker exploitation, corrupt corporations; the latter two being rather ironic in a series coming from Amazon.
“We are honoured to be able to present this continuation of the Blade Runner franchise,” said Amazon’s head of global television, Vernon Sanders. “[We] 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.”
Alcon Entertainment co-founders and CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson explained that the series aims to hit a very high bar of quality.
“We recognise that we have a very high bar to meet with this next installment [sic],” they said. “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.”
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Where will they go?
The ending of Blade Runner 2049 left a world that could be very much changed in 50 years. Blade Runner’s scummy, polluted world run entirely by humans may be overruled by the time of Blade Runner 2099.
After all, the last movie reached a point where some Replicants could reproduce. This makes them just as human as, well, a human. So, should they still be treated as worker drones?
This is a very provocative storyline that the series will be able to take. Hopefully, the series will handle it with the intelligence and grace of 2049, a truly masterful movie.
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