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Ridley Scott’s impact on the world of movies can’t be overstated. The director has defined genre storytelling for the past few decades with franchises like Gladiator and Alien, while also delivering emotional dramas like Thelma & Louise and House of Gucci. This month, one of the most beloved titles that he has been associated with has found a whole new life on streaming.
Blade Runner 2049, the 2017 sequel to Scott’s 1982 classic Blade Runner, has been among the Top 10 most-watched films on Paramount+ since being added to the platform earlier this year. This comes after the film has already found success among the most-watched movies on HBO Max this month. While Scott did not direct Blade Runner 2049, with that honor ultimately going to Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve, he is still attached to the project as an executive producer.
According to Warner Bros. Pictures’ official description for Blade Runner 2049, “Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new Blade Runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former Blade Runner who’s been missing for 30 years.”
In addition to Gosling and Ford, the cast of Blade Runner 2049 also includes Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Robin Wright, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto. Although the film underperformed at the box office with a worldwide gross of only $276.6 million, its legacy has continued in the years since. Not only was the film well received by critics when it first debuted in 2017, but it was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards, ultimately winning the trophies for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.
Blade Runner 2049 also arguably reignited the fandom surrounding Scott’s original film, which is itself an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick. Titan Comics has published a number of spin-off comic books, which are co-written by 2049 screenwriter Michael Green and chronicle different points in the universe’s canon. Adult Swim also aired a spin-off anime series in 2021, titled Blade Runner: Black Lotus and set roughly fifteen years before the events of the film.
Later this fall, Prime Video subscribers will be treated to Blade Runner 2099, a new live-action television series that is set fifty years after the events of 2049. Also executive produced by Scott, the series will follow Olwen (Michelle Yeoh) a Replicant Blade Runner who is trying to unite with her partner Cora (Hunter Schafer) who is a human pretending to be a Replicant. It is set to debut on Prime Video on November 25, 2026.
