Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099 series was announced over two years ago—long enough that a person could be forgiven for thinking maybe it just faded away, as so many potential series do. But no: It’s trucking along, and what’s more, it has a pretty incredible star. Variety reports that Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek: Discovery, pictured above) has signed on to the series, and while all the plot details are secret, “sources say Yeoh will play a character named Olwen, described as a replicant near the end of her life.”
Blade Runner 2099 is a slightly odd duck. As suggested by the title, it takes place 50 years after Denis Villeneuve’s film Blade Runner 2049, but Villeneuve is not involved; instead, it’s a project from original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, and is also a sequel to that film. Scott is an executive producer, and Silka Luisa is the series’ showrunner.
Luisa was the showrunner for Apple TV+’s The Shining Girls, a very good adaptation of the Lauren Beukes novel of the same name. She was also a writer and supervising producer on the first season of Halo.
And one more interesting person is attached to this Blade Runner: Jonathan van Tulleken is set to direct the first two episodes. Van Tulleken recently directed two episodes of Shogun, as well as four episodes of The Changeling.
No premiere date has been announced.
