“There’s been a replicant uprising that feels like it’s been bubbling up,” Lousia explains. “And between 2049 and 2099, that’s happened. So the war has happened and the humans have lost. Our worst fears imagined.”
Welcome to the new world order. “The replicants are now the power brokers of the city,” says the showrunner. “And humans are the second-class citizens.” (Bummer for us.)
And the story we will see on screen is not just informed and inspired by the two Blade Runner movies, but also by the novel on which the original film is based: Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Therein lies the main thread of the series. Notes Luisa: “The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant?”
(...)
Leading the new cast is Michelle Yeoh as a replicant Blade Runner named Olwen. “She is hunting down a group of missing rogue replicants,” explains Luisa. “She’s in the final days of her life, so she knows she has only days left to live because replicants know down to the day when they’re gonna die. It’s certain and it’s definitive.”
If the tale of a desperate replicant coming up against their expiration date sounds familiar, that is very much intentional.
“Her story is very much taking the Roy Batty story from the first film,” says Luisa of the iconic Rutger Hauer performance. Only this time, there is one major difference. “We’re telling it from the replicant’s point of view.”
And they plan to go deep on that vantage point. “We have the benefit of television where you have all of the hours that you could want to explore the nuances of this very relatable and human fear of not wanting to die,” notes Luisa. “There’s something about the idea that you’re not winding down when you die. You’re spiraling out. There’s a volatility, a danger, and a desperation to it, which I think Michelle really tapped into in her performance.”
The other key figure is Olwen’s partner, Cora, played by Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer. Instead of another replicant trying to blend in as a human, Cora is actually the opposite.
“Hunter is playing a human who is a fugitive and has spent her life running from Blade Runners,” explains the showrunner. “And now has to pretend to be one.”
But the act has worked almost too well.
“In this struggle to survive and just trying to live day-to-day, she’s actually lost her humanity,” Luisa says. “So she’s a human who has lost her humanity. And the question for the series is: Once you’ve lost her humanity, can you regain it?”
