We Finally Know the Title of the ‘Blade Runner’ Sequel
But we still have to wait a whole year to see it.
The title of the sequel to the Harrison Ford sci-fi classic Blade Runner has finally been revealed. The new movie, in which Ford stars alongside Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto, is called Blade Runner 2049.
Fans of the original 1982 sci-fi classic might notice right away that the first movie was set in 2019—meaning (obviously), we’ve jumped forward three decades in the story of replicant hunter Rick Deckard.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with 2049 director Denis Villeneuve about the sequel and he provided a bit more insight:
[Villeneuve] told EW that the events in the new film take place several decades after the Ridley Scott-directed original, and the setting is once again a future dystopian Los Angeles. Hampton Fancher, who was responsible for turning Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into the Blade Runner screenplay, has returned for its sequel, along with Michael Green (Alien: Covenant). It was Fancher who was able to soothe Villeneuve’s pre-production nerves. “He told me that Blade Runner was a dream. We just have to dream again and not worry too much about logic. That removed so much pressure and gave me the key to move forward.”
Die-hard fans of science fiction classics are often churlish when it comes to sequels or remakes of their beloved originals, but the involvement of Ford as well as the first film’s screenwriter is reassuring. Also Villeneuve’s intense and visually arresting style—on thrilling display in Sicario—seems perfectly suited to the dark dystopian world inhabited by Deckard and the replicants he hunted.
Blade Runner 2049 is coming from Alcon Entertainment, which owns the franchise, and will begin giving new Voight-Kampff tests in theaters on October 6, 2017.
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