Prime Video gave “Blade Runner 2099” its first full trailer at New York Comic Con on Saturday and confirmed that all eight episodes arrive Nov. 25. Stars Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer joined the show’s creators on NYCC’s Empire Stage to unveil it.
The limited series is set 50 years after “Blade Runner 2049,” in a reborn Los Angeles. Fugitive Cora (Schafer) assumes a final identity as a Blade Runner and must partner with Olwen (Yeoh), a near-death Replicant, to hunt a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse the city. Replicants, not humans, now hold power in the city.
Showrunner Silka Luisa has pitched the show with a noir reference point. She has called it “Chinatown” set in the world of “Blade Runner.” The trailer leans into that mood, and it hints at an answer to the central mystery. Its editing suggests that the link between the disappearances is Schafer’s character. Descriptions of Cora differ across the coverage, with some calling her a human and others a Replicant, so the series may be withholding exactly that detail.
Yeoh and Schafer spoke with admiration about Ridley Scott’s original film and Denis Villeneuve’s sequel. Schafer said the franchise changed sci-fi as a genre. Yeoh said she was excited to play a Replicant rather than a human, and described the challenge of a character who moves from accepting her death to fighting it.
The ensemble is broad. Dimitri Abold and Lewis Gribben are series regulars alongside the two leads. Matthew Needham also appeared on the panel, as did executive producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. Amazon MGM Studios and Alcon Television Group produce.
The series has taken years to reach screens. Prime Video revealed the title in February 2022. Filming ran about six months across Prague and Belfast before principal photography wrapped.
Expectations are high. The franchise carries a devoted audience, and its last installment sold itself on visual ambition. A streaming limited series must prove it can match that scale and keep the philosophical weight that defined the originals. The trailer suggests the creators know it.
