Highlights
- Blade Runner 2099 series reaches casting milestone with Hunter Schafer joining Michelle Yeoh.
- Fans excited for futuristic conspiracy plot with Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer as co-leads.
- Creative team behind Blade Runner 2099 promises high-budget production and potential for cultural relevance.
The upcoming Blade Runner 2099 series has finally reached a major milestone on its way to release, with a new casting being confirmed recently for one of the most important roles in the series.
The Blade Runner franchise started off as an understated idea stemming from the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip Dick before truly exploding into the popular consciousness with the now-iconic film adaptation from filmmaker Ridley Scott. This was the franchise’s ascension to the big time and has since become a cult classic and a major influence in the science fiction genre. As a result, fans were absolutely delighted when Scott revealed that a Blade Runner TV show was in the works for streaming.
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With the now-named Blade Runner 2099 sequel series getting greenlit at Amazon, the show’s pre-production is in full swing and casting has started in earnest. In addition to Everything Everywhere At Once’s Michelle Yeoh, who has previously been cast in the project, Deadline has now confirmed that the other female lead role in the series has been filled by none other than Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, who was given the go-ahead to book other roles thanks to production delays on Euphoria’s third season. While the specifics of her role haven’t been confirmed, rumors preceding the official announcement in the trades indicate that she’ll be taking on the role of Cora alongside Yeoh’s Olwen as co-leads. The character is mentioned in the available plot synopsis, albeit with little detail to go on.
In Los Angeles 2099, Cora lived her entire life on the run, a chameleon forced to adopt numerous identities. To secure a stable future for her brother, she assumes one final identity and is forced to partner with Olwen, a Replicant who’s confronting the end of her life. The two are pulled into a widening conspiracy that poses an existential threat to a city that’s fighting to be reborn.
A return to the mind-bending science fiction of the Blade Runner franchise is certainly welcome news for fans, who have been craving more since the 2017 entry Blader Runner 2049 managed to serve as a worthy sequel almost three decades after the original cinematic masterpiece that got the fans talking about it. While Denis Villeneuve certainly did the IP justice in that instance, the addition of Scott in the role of executive producer and as the project’s potential director has certainly lent a lot of weight to the offering. The role of the project’s scribe and showrunner has been given to Silka Luisa, who most recently successfully adapted the 2013 novel Shining Girls into an Apple TV+ series of the same name, also serving as writer and showrunner there. While it’s still early days, Blade Runner 2099 certainly seems to be in good hands backstage.
This is great news for fans of the franchise, who had to contend with bad news concerning the Amazon sci-fi series being delayed due to the double strikes that took place last year pushing back the potential release window. With the series set 50 years ahead in time from the last big-budget live-action outing, there’s little doubt that the show is going to be in post-production for ages, and might require a lot of filming to fully bring the creative vision to life. As such, the potential 2024 release initially speculated after the delays in 2023 seems particularly unlikely now. However, the new timeline has reportedly allowed Jonathan van Tulleken to serve as EP on some episodes, fresh off of his stellar run on streaming/linear hit Shogun. This marks yet another heavy hitter behind the scenes for the project, giving it even more of a big-budget project feel.
The franchise certainly seems set for a push to even more cultural relevance, with Stray publisher Annapurna Interactive working on a new Blade Runner game in tandem with the IP's first live-action television project. With Blade Runner joining the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek as s true multimedia player, there’s no telling what’s in store for fans next. Of course, this means that there’s a lot more than just its own narrative stakes resting on Blade Runner 2099’s shoulders.
Blade Runner 2099 is currently set in development for release for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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Source: Deadline
