'Blade Runner 2049'-Inspired Animated Series Coming to Adult Swim
The "Blade Runner" universe is expanding again.
"Blade Runner 2049" had a successful run at the box office last year, and now it has inspired an anime series. The forthcoming show, "Blade Runner – Black Lotus" will arrive on Adult Swim and be part of Toonami, its anime programming block, Deadline reports.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, "Blade Runner 2049" stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford as K and Rick Deckard, respectively, and takes place in a future where replicants (otherwise known as "bioengineered humans") function as slaves. "Blade Runner – Black Lotus" will be set in that same world in the year 2032, though we don't know plot specifics yet. Sola Digital Arts is producing, and there will be 13 half-hour episodes.
"The 'Blade Runner' universe is an incredibly deep well for story and character with its world and mythology that audiences have been debating and talking about since inception," said executive producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, both of Alcon Television Group, in a statement. "We are excited to continue exploring that world via this anime series."
The series will be helmed by Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama, who are also the directors of an upcoming "Ghost in the Shell" series. Meanwhile, Shinichiro Watanabe will serve as a creative producer; he previously directed "Cowboy Bebop," a Japanese anime that's now getting a live-action remake for Netflix.
Alcon Television Group is producing and distributing the series in partnership with WarnerMedia's Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. Al-Francis Cuenca and Laura Lancaster will join their Alcon colleagues Kosove and Johnson as executive producers, as will Joseph Chou of Sola Digital Art. Meanwhile, Alcon's Ben Roberts is set to be a co-executive producer, and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production IG will serve as a production adviser.
No release date for "Blade Runner – Black Lotus" has been announced.
[via: Deadline]