Blade Runner 2099, premiering on Prime Video on November 25, dropped its first teaser on July 24 just in time for San Diego Comic-Con.
The series, created by Silka Luisa (AppleTV’s Shining Girls), continues the world of Blade Runner. The series is a direct sequel to the 1982 film starring Harrison Ford and Sean Young, and Blade Runner 2049 starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Denis Villeneuve.
The premise of the series, according to the press release is: “50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity. Cora (Hunter Shafer), a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen (Academy Award Winner Michelle Yeoh), a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse their fragile city.”
The teaser trailer has all the jaw-dropping visual effects you’d expect from the world of Blade Runner. It’s equal parts grandiose and grimy with a heavy veil of violence and turmoil cast. The one-minute, 48-second clip does a solid job establishing Shafer as our protagonist, and Yeoh as an unpredictable and dangerous force to be reckoned with. Outside of that, very little plot exposition is given (not surprising for a teaser).
Prime Video is taking a big swing for the fences by dropping the entire episode run on November 25 – the kick-off to Thanksgiving weekend. The series will have to battle five days of football (including a Friday game on Prime), the final episode of Prime’s Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power and a crowded box office with the Hunger Games prequel sequel, the fourth Meet the Parents film, and Disney’s Hexed. So it’s either a big swing for the fences, or dumping a show that was announced back in 2022.
The teaser has promise — the action, the intrigue, the cast — all have major upside. However, mileage varies for the Blade Runner franchise. The big screen entries have not been box office juggernauts, and the anime Blade Runner: Black Lotus came and went. So will audiences show up? If Prime has proven anything over the years it’s that you should never count them out. They’ve had success with IP like Spider-Noir and Fallout over the past few years, so we’re optimistic about the series’ quality; it’s just the release date and IP’s reputation that gives pause about its longevity.
