Ridley Scott Developing a Brand-New Blade Runner Series for Amazon
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One of the classics of sci-fi cinema may be heading to the small screen in the near future in the form of a new TV series! According to Deadline, Ridley Scott, the famous director of Blade Runner (not to mention Alien, Gladiator, and many more!), is currently developing a live-action series for Amazon Studios, currently titled Blade Runner 2099, in keeping with the naming convention of the previous entry in the series, the film sequel Blade Runner 2049 from 2017. It seems that it will likely also pick up on some of the plot threads from that film, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve, whose recent sci-fi epic Dune has received major accolades and Academy Award nominations.
In addition to executive-producing the new show, Deadline reports that Scott might direct a number of the episodes. Other members of the creative team we currently know are co-executive producer Silka Luisa, who also worked on Shining Girls, Strange Angel, and The Wilding, and Michael Green, who co-wrote Blade Runner 2049.
The project seems to be a labour of love for Scott, who has been pitching the series to various streaming services over the past year before finally being picked up by Amazon.
This will be his second sci-fi TV show, as he also executive produces Raised by Wolves for HBO Max, which began in 2020, and the second season of which only just debuted this month.
The original Blade Runner began its life as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a novel by classic sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, and this isn’t Amazon’s first foray into his work. In 2017, they ran a one-season anthology series called Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, based on a number of his short stories and featuring big names such as Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Tuppence Middleton, Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger, and Janelle Monae. There’s no word yet on whether this new Blade Runner series will have a similarly starry cast, although Harrison Ford famously starred in both films.
This also isn’t the first TV series to be set in the Blade Runner universe. An anime series called Blade Runner: Black Lotus only just debuted on Adult Swim recently, however that one was set between the first and second films, rather than afterwards, so likely won’t have a direct impact on this one’s plot.
Amazon Studios will be jointly producing Blade Runner 2099 along with Ridley Scott’s own company, Scott Free Productions, as well as Alcon Entertainment, who produced the superb sci-fi series, The Expanse, which only just finished, and also spent its last three seasons as an Amazon show.
With such a high calibre of people and companies involved in the production, as well as it’s legacy status, there’s every reason to expect that this will be an extremely high-quality, exciting show. Unfortunately, no dates have yet been released for when we might be expected to see it, as production hasn’t even begun yet, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye out for, hopefully within the next year or so.
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