‘Blade Runner 2099’ Shows the ‘Silver Linings’ of a Replicant Takeover

It defined what noir sci-fi would look like for years to come: the rain, the dramatic lighting, the trenchcoats. Denis Villeneuve delivered a worthy sequel in 2017 with Blade Runner 2049, but for some fans nothing will ever touch the original.

Silka Luisa tries not to think about these things. “If I didn’t love Blade Runner this would’ve been way too hard,” the showrunner of Prime Video’s limited series Blade Runner 2099 said Wednesday during the WIRED World Fair.

Luisa’s show differs quite a bit from its forebears. It still has the humanoids known as replicants, but in 2099’s future, they’re the ones calling the shots, giving humans the grunt work they used to do.