The Blade Runner 2099 series in the works at Prime Video has announced its first bit of casting, setting up Michelle Yeoh in a lead role.
According to Variety, Yeoh will have a lead role in Blade Runner 2099, a series that is a sequel to both the original 1982 Ridley Scott film and its 2017 follow-up, Blade Runner 2049. While details remain under wraps, sources say Yeoh will play a character named Olwen, described as "a replicant near the end of her life."
Yeoh, of course, has had a long and prolific career, including roles in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha film adaptation, and Destin Daniel Cretton's MCU entry Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as TV shows such American Born Chinese and The Witcher: Blood Origin.
For her starring role as Evelyn Wang in the A24 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeoh won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian to win in that category. She also recently attended a ceremony at the White House, where she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Blade Runner 2099 has been in the works for a while, with Ridley Scott confirming in November 2021 that the team had already locked in the plot for the new series. Amazon then revealed in February 2022 that the show was in development with Scott on board as an executive producer alongside showrunner Silka Luisa.
In addition to Scott and Luisa, the show's executive producers include Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Ben Roberts, David W. Zucker, Clayton Krueger, Tom Spezialy, Richard Sharkey, Michael Green, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, and Isa Dick Hackett, with Steven Johnson as co-executive producer.
There is no premiere date yet, but Shōgun director Jonathan van Tulleken will helm the first two episodes and will also executive produce.
Thumbnail credit: Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
