Showrunner Silka Luisa says Amazon's Prime Video show Blade Runner 2099 is only getting one eight-episode season because the upcoming limited series tells "a complete story."
"It was always considered as a limited series," Luisa told Collider. "Part of making the transition from film to TV is a really big jump for something that’s as cinematic as Blade Runner, and so, in that sense, it was really important to us that we told a story that, in a way, is like a movie in the sense that there's a beginning, there's a middle, and there’s an end. So we went into it with Alcon, with all of our producing partners, knowing we really want to tell a complete story. Eight episodes... I mean, eight's my lucky number, that’s the number I would have picked, but it felt like the right amount for the story we were planning on telling."
The new series takes place 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, and it's a pretty bleak future. There's a replicant uprising, the war has happened, and the humans have lost. "The replicants are now the power brokers of the city. And humans are the second-class citizens," Luisa explained. The tagline is appropriately dystopian: "Welcome to a future you no longer control." Hunter Schafer stars as a human named Cora who encounters Olwen (Michelle Yeoh), a replicant at the end of her life.
And if you're wondering how involved Ridley Scott is with the show... let's just say the answer is very. Luisa let slip during San Diego Comic-Con that she got to sit down with Scott one-on-one to work on the show, and that he "shepherded" her during the process. This is exciting, especially considering the fact that he's expressed regret in not directing Blade Runner 2049.
Blade Runner 2099 is set to hit Prime Video on November 25, 2026. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming TV shows to fill out your watchlist.
