'Blade Runner 2099' Showrunner Reveals the Sci-Fi Secrets She Learned from Ridley Scott

Polygon: Blade Runner is one of the most influential sci-fi movies of all time. Does that make it more difficult to create a sequel when so much else already feels like Blade Runner?

Silka Luisa: That was definitely a conversation we had early on. So much sci-fi after Blade Runner imitates Blade Runner. You can find the reference points in so many other franchises. That was an opportunity for us to evolve the look of the world. It definitely pushed us when we were thinking of the visuals of the show and how the city could feel different than the films and other sci-fi. We really pushed against the idea of: If replicants have taken over, how would Los Angeles feel different? And how could we get a different aesthetic from that?

The series is set in 2099, 50 years after the last movie and 80 years after the original. Why did you choose that year?

One of the early asks from Alcon was that the TV show be separate from the films. They didn't want to have a continuation of the same characters. They wanted it to feel like it was within the franchise in terms of canon, but that it was its own standalone story. And so that meant we had to give enough space so that if they do continue the films, they would have enough room to do that.

Were you worried at all about messing with Blade Runner canon?

It felt like there was enough years separation that we had a pretty clear space to work in. But also, Alcon were such close partners in making the show, so anytime we were getting too close to something that they had intentions for, they could raise their hand very quickly.

Harrison Ford showed up in Blade Runner 2049. Does Decker have any sort of impact on the show?

Harrison Ford is not in the show. I feel like as a Blade Runner fan, I would want to know that, so I'm just gonna be a full disclosure: I wish, but no. Like I was saying before, it was important to Alcon that we separated ourselves from both films in terms of characters. From a mythological and canon point of view, we do reference back into the films. I can't give that away without spoilers, but that was why having Ridley a part of the show was such an important piece.

The first time you watched Blade Runner, did you think Decker was a replicant?

I thought he was a replicant, and I didn't realize that there was a debate. Because I watched it for the first time at home on a tiny little 13-inch TV. And so it was really the character stories that I was tracking. Then, as an adult, I realized there's been this whole debate.

Was Blade Runner 2049 an influence for you?

From a thematic standpoint, it's very much the heart of Blade Runner. There is a loneliness and a need for connection in 2049 that is so powerful. That is the Blade Runner I saw in a movie theater, and it had an incredible impact on me. The thematics of that are definitely baked into our show: this longing for intimacy and how hard that actually is. That feels so relatable in the world we're living in right now.

Hunter Schafer is a really interesting casting choice. Are you trying to say anything with that decision?

Hunter was our first choice for Cora, hands down.

Is this a story about AI anxiety?

It's not just tech. Ever since I've been working on this show, it does feel like there's this fear in the air that the world, as we know it, will collapse, and something else will come after that. But we don't really know what that will look like. A big impetus for the show was trying to picture: What does a world look like where we're not the center of it? And how do you continue a sense of humanity if you're not the center of the world anymore?

The “robots take-over” premise reminds me of The Matrix. Are you drawing from any other sci-fi movies for inspiration?

Blade Runner is never about politics and geopolitics. It's very much street-level characters. And so the show is really, like the films, a noir. It's much more Chinatown set in the world of Blade Runner. It's really about Cora and Olwin investigating missing people, just like they do in the films.

You've described the series as a sunshine noir. What excited you about that genre?

It was about: How do we evolve the aesthetic? How do we add something new while still making sure that the tactility of it and the details of it still feel familiar to the Blade Runner franchise? I had always been interested in what the coastline looks like in Blade Runner, just as a fan. You never see that part of the city. I live in Los Angeles. It's such a big part of what makes Los Angeles special. So that felt like an opportunity to set more of the show there.

A lot of the series was filmed on location. Where did you shoot?

We shot in both Prague and Barcelona, and that gave us a lot of nice sunshine. They actually have a lot of similarities to California in terms of the vegetation and just the quality of the light. Prague actually gave us a ton of locations. We had a huge backlot, where we built out the coastline streets, and we obviously built a lot of our standing sets that were apartments that the LAPD returned to. But because it's an investigation, you're having to pull through so many different locations in every single episode. By using real world locations and transforming them, we were able to do that, but then still give it that Blade Runner patina. And Prague, just in terms of its own architecture, gave us so many more locations than I think we were even anticipating.

Ridley Scott was directly involved in Blade Runner 2099. What did you learn from working with him?

He's awesome. It's hard to describe. Because I'm sure if you're a Blade Runner fan, he really is the visual author of Blade Runner. And to be able to unpack with someone a piece of art that you love so much and understand the decision-making process that went into all the details, it obviously informed the making of this show. But just as a fan, it was such a pleasure to peek behind the curtain in a way I didn't ever anticipate I would have the chance to.

He has a really interesting way of world building where he's incredibly logical, so he asks a lot of very practical questions about how the world operates, the history of it. But then at the same time, he's a painter at heart, and so he will gravitate towards an image that excites him. It's really the push and pull between those two facets of Ridley that gives you Blade Runner.

That was something that me and Jonathan [van Tulleken], the director for the first two episodes, which really establish the look of the show, talked about a lot. You have to build out all these underlying layers of the logic to how everything functions, but at the same time, if there's a visual detail that is interesting or that just in an instinctive way you want to include in the show, just go for it. Have that sense of freedom. Because I think sci-fi can get very stiff. There's been almost an overthinking.

When you re-watch the original Blade Runner, what's so refreshing about it was there's this creative looseness. There's so many ideas that are on screen, and we wanted to try and recapture that feeling.

Are you thinking at all about season 2?

We originally sold the show as a limited series. This is a cinematic property. We have to retain some sense of filmic storytelling. Obviously, there's always hope that audiences love the world and the characters and that it could continue. But in terms of this first series, it is a complete story within itself. That was really important.

---

All eight episodes of Blade Runner 2099 release on Prime Video on Nov. 25.