With his acclaimed 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, prolific science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick introduced a bleak and alarmingly plausible vision of the future that was brought to the big screen 14 years later in the film, Blade Runner, and again in 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. The upcoming limited series, Blade Runner 2099 – which is coming to one of the best streaming services to subscribe to, Amazon Prime – is the latest installment of that thought-provoking sci-fi franchise. Let’s explore everything that we know about the series so far in the following guide.
What Is The Blade Runner 2099 Premiere Date?
Unfortunately, one thing about Blade Runner 2099 that we cannot tell you at the moment is when you can watch it. The series, currently, has no set premiere date, but at least we do know that it will be available to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription upon release.
The Blade Runner 2099 Cast Is Led By Michelle Yeoh
So far, the Blade Runner 2049 cast boasts a few sci-fi veterans and many others who will be taking their first plunge into the genre with the new series. Take a look at who is starring in the series and what you may already know them from.
Michelle Yeoh (Olwen)
The first major addition to the Blade Runner 2099 cast is Michelle Yeoh, who is starring as Olwen, a Replicant who is about to expire, according to Variety. The Malaysian actor is already no stranger to the sci-fi genre, having earned an Academy Award for her performance in A24's hit multiverse movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and starred on Star Trek: Discovery, to name a few.
Hunter Schafer
Variety reported in June 2024 that Hunter Schafer – known for the Euphoria cast as Jules Vaughn and Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness – joined the Blade Runner 2099 cast. There are no official details regarding who the star of Cuckoo is playing, but a rumor courtesy of Hollywood insider Daniel Richtman (via World of Reel) suggests she is playing a woman on the run who teams up with Olwen to take on a conspiracy.
Dimitri Abold
Also joining the Blade Runner 2099 cast in an undisclosed role is Dimitri Abold. The Jamaican-born, German-raised actor is known for his part in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and his recurring role on Netflix’s action/fantasy series, Warrior Nun, and a more grounded, comedic, original for the platform called Love Addicts.
Lewis Gribben
Scottish actor Lewis Gribben made his debut in 2017’s T2: Trainspotting as a dealer before starring in the Amazon Prime original dark comedy film, Get Duked. He later led Hulu’s 2022 dramatic limited series, Somewhere Boy, had a role in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, and his upcoming horror movie, The Damned, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024.
Katelyn Rose Downey
Irish actor Katelyn Rose Downey is making her sci-fi debut with a recurring role in the Blade Runner 2099 cast. However, she has already tackled both action and fantasy as Violet in Hulu’s The Princess, and horror with a role in the Conjuring Universe movie, The Nun II, from 2023. That same year, she also had a main role in the limited crime series, Clean Sweep.
Daniel Rigby
Also appearing in a recurring 2099 role is Daniel Rigby, who – despite getting his start as a stand-up comedian – is known better for his dramatic acting, such as in one of the best episodes of Black Mirror, Season 2’s “The Waldo Moment.” Even one of the English actor’s most notable comedic roles comes from a pretty dark comedy series called Flowers.
Johnny Harris
Recurring Blade Runner 2099 actor and two-time BAFTA nominee Johnny Harris has appeared in well-known movies like Atonement, RocknRolla, and Snow White and the Huntsman. You might recognize him from the small screen for his roles in Amazon’s Fortitude, FX’s Great Expectations, and Paramount+’s A Gentleman in Moscow.
Amy Lennox
Before landing her recurring role on Blade Runner 2099, Amy Lennox was best known for her main role on long-running UK medical drama Holby City. She would make her acting debut in 2010 in the Alex Garland-penned Never Let Me Go. She followed that up with a straight-to-video sequel to Wrong Turn and would lend her voice to video games like Dragon Quest Heroes II.
Sheila Atim
In 2023, Uganda actor Sheila Atim – who also has a recurring 2099 role – earned BAFTA nomination for the EE Rising Star Award for her role in the acclaimed A24 movie, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. She previously starred in Amazon’s 2021 miniseries The Underground Railroad, the 2022 Marvel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and The Woman King as Amenza.
Matthew Needham
Johnny Harris’s Great Expectations co-star Matthew Needham is going from his starring role in the House of the Dragon cast as Lord Larys Strong to a recurring role in Blade Runner 2099. The actor got his star on the BBC medical drama Casualty before later starring in a 2017 Netflix horror movie called The Ritual and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, more recently.
Tom Burke
According to Deadline, Tom Burke is joining the Blade Runner 2099 cast in a recurring role. The English actor is best known for portraying Orson Welles in Mank, playing Anthony in The Souvenir, and contributing to some of the most badass moments in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga as Praetorian Jack.
Maurizio Lombardi
Also recurring on 2099 is Maurizio Lombardi. The Italian actor is best known to American audiences for his recurring roles on Netflix's Ripley and HBO's The Young Pope and its follow-up, The New Pope.
What Blade Runner 2099 Is About
Outside of what we know about Yeoh's character, details regarding the plot of the live-action Blade Runner 2099 TV show are quite scarce. One thing that has been revealed — which we were also able to guess pretty easily from the title — is that the story is a continuation of Blade Runner 2049 and takes place 50 years later. The 2017 thriller was a direct sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner and brought Ford’s Rick Deckard — a cop who specializes in identifying and “retiring” Replicants — together with Gosling’s K, who is a Replicant Blade Runner searching for the long-missing Deckard after making a shocking discovery.
Considering the gap of time between Blade Runner 2049 and Blade Runner 2099 and what supposedly happens to K at the end of the film (without giving too much away), it seems unlikely that we will be seeing either of the Academy Award nominees reprising their roles. However, what is likely is that Deckard and K’s relevance to the story may be of great importance to the plot of the upcoming series. Maybe the show could finally put the debate over whether or not Deckard is a Replicant to bed, even if not knowing for sure is part of the story’s appeal.
Silka Luisa Is The Showrunner
The lead executive producer for Blade Runner 2099 is Silka Luisa, who previously served as the showrunner for the Apple TV+ original mystery series, Shining Girls, which she also created. She was also a writer and producer for Paramount+’s fact-based occult drama, Strange Angel, and was a supervising producer for the first season of the platform’s series adaptation of Halo. So, it looks like she already knows a few things about high-concept, dystopian drama.
In addition to also executive producing Blade Runner 2099, Jonathan van Tulleken has signed on to direct the first two episodes, after just completing the same task for FX’s Shogun (per Deadline). The two-time BAFTA nominee is also known for helming five episodes of Hulu’s revenge thriller, Reprisal, and four chapters of Apple TV+’s 2023 horror series, The Changeling. Van Tulleken assumes the reins from Emmy nominee Jeremy Podeswa, who had to step down from helming 2099 amid scheduling conflicts.
Ridley Scott Is Producing
No installment to this franchise would truly be complete without some involvement by the man who first brought Philip K. Dick’s vision to the big screen. Thankfully, Ridley Scott is signed on as an executive producer for Blade Runner 2099. In fact, his involvement was known when it was announced that Amazon Studios was giving the series the green light in 2022.
Blade Runner was the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker’s third feature, following 1977’s Napoleonic War-era drama The Duellists and another cinematic sci-fi classic: the 1979 debut installment of the Alien movies franchise, which has another new chapter called Alien: Romulus that Scott is also producing. While directorial duties were passed on to Denis Villeneuve for Blade Runner 2049, Scott would also return as an executive producer for the sequel. He would, however, return to direct the upcoming 2024 movie, Gladiator 2 — a sequel to his Best Picture Oscar winner from 2000.
Blade Runner 2099 Started Filming In June 2024
Even though the premiere date for Blade Runner 2099 remains unknown, the wait for that announcement should not last too much longer. The series began shooting in June 2024 in Prague, according to KFTV.
The original plan was to film in Belfast, Ireland. However, after the writers' strike caused a delay in production, the location was moved to the Czech Republic, which also serves as the backdrop for other acclaimed sci-fi TV shows like Apple TV+’s Foundation.
How Many Episodes Are There In Blade Runner 2099?
The number of episodes that Blade Runner 2099 will consist of has not been officially announced yet. An early report on the series’ development from 2022 by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that the season could be told in 8-10 hour-long chapters.
How To Watch The Blade Runner Franchise So Far
On the bright side, it looks like curious audiences will have plenty of time to catch up on the story so far before they try out Blade Runner 2099 when it premieres. Of course, they will want to start with the original — widely considered one of the all-time greatest sci-fi movies — but even that can be tricky, as there are numerous, drastically different edits of the film available. The safest bet is to go with 2001’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which is personally endorsed by Scott.
The next step is to watch Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, which some fans argue surpasses the original with its ingenious exploration of the story’s already profound subject matter and stunning, Academy Award-winning cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins. However, if you prefer to go in chronological order, watch the first small-screen installment, the anime-style Blade Runner: Block Lotus, which aired on Adult Swim in 2021 and is now available exclusively on Crunchyroll.
- Rent or buy Blade Runner on Amazon
- Buy Blade Runner on Blu-ray on Amazon
- Rent or buy Blade Runner 2049 on Amazon
- Buy Blade Runner 2049 on Blu-ray on Amazon
- Stream Blade Runner: Black Lotus on Crunchyroll
With a new series on the way, it is wonderful to know that the Blade Runner franchise will continue and avoid being lost in time, like tears in rain.
