Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve and the team behind the highly anticipated sequel have been coming up some unique ways to set up the story for the sequel. Over thirty years have passed since the events of the first film, but two of the three announced Blade Runner short films have already fleshed out the story and bridged the gap. The first short, Blade Runner 2036, hinted at a major blackout event in the past that changed the course of the world. Now, we’ll get to see that moment in the form of a Blade Runner anime short.
Via Kotaku, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo director Shinichiro Watanabe is helming the Blade Runner anime short, which will be released online by Sony Pictures Japan on September 26. This is especially fitting because the influence of the original Blade Runner could be felt in Cowboy Bebop, which Watanabe acknowledges in the preview video. “The work that has influenced me the most in my anime profession would be, of course, Blade Runner,†said Watanabe in the clip.
The video was more of a teaser than a full preview, as it only offered the briefest of glimpses at what’s coming in Blade Runner: Black Out 2022. But it will take place only a few years after the original film, and it may give fans some insight about why the Replicant technology was either lost or banned for over a decade before it was brought back by Jared Leto‘s Niander Wallace.
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Images: Sony Pictures Japan
