A live-action sequel to the pioneering cyberpunk film franchise is being developed by filmmaker Ridley Scott for Amazon.

The upcoming series, titled Blade Runner 2099, will be set 50 years after the events that occurred in Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 - also executive produced by Scott - which was a major critical success yet ailed to perform greatly at the box office: It made $259m globally on an estimated budget of $150-185 million. Nevertheless, the film secured a big win for its director of photography Roger Deakins at the Academy Awards, having been nominated previously 17 times before winning for 2049.

Furthermore, Scott seems to be the ideal choice to be at the helm of the series, which he might direct as well, given that he was the director behind the original Blade Runner (1982), adapted from the Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheeps?

2099 is not the first Blade Runner TV series though, as it was preceded by Blade Runner: Black Lotus, an anime adaptation released by Crunchyroll, focusing on events occurring between 2023 and 2049, specifically 2032, thus bridging the narrative gap lying in-between the two installments. 

The whole situation boils down to one question: Who’s the busiest between the two? The legendary Ridley Scott or Amazon?

In 2021, Scott released two films in a short span of time, the medieval thriller The Last Duel and crime drama The House of Gucci, each clocking at around two hours and a half. He then started working on Kitbag, a historical epic starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte, and is set to direct right afterward the sequel to one of his most seminal works, Gladiator. Meanwhile, on the small screen, he is developing a new TV series for FX as part of the Alien franchise he launched back in 1979 with Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley. 

On the other hand, Amazon is probably having its busiest year to date with its work on the Lord of The Rings series titled The Rings of Power. The series, reportedly budgeted at $465 million, is due to be out in September and has cost $1 billion for securing the rights.