Blade Run­ner 2 may reveal whether Deckard is human or a Replicant

Fol­low­ing years of spec­u­la­tion and numer­ous report­ed direc­to­r­i­al chops and changes, prin­ci­pal pho­tog­ra­phy is final­ly set to com­mence on Blade Run­ner 2 in July this year. Although the com­plet­ed movie is unlike­ly to hit cin­e­mas until late 2017, we’re already eager to find out whether it will show us things we won’t believe.

Despite some dis­con­tent among fans who have ques­tioned whether an ambigu­ous, self-con­tained cult clas­sic like Blade Run­ner – which the­mat­i­cal­ly preach­es the need to accept our tran­sience and innate mor­tal­i­ty – real­ly needs con­tin­u­ing, the sequel looks to be in safe hands under direc­tor Denis Vil­leneuve, who will once again col­lab­o­rate with cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Roger Deakins with whom he worked on Sicario and Pris­on­ers. The dark tone of those films cer­tain­ly suits the dystopi­an world of Blade Run­ner, and we’re hop­ing that Vil­leneuve and Deakins can infuse this brood­ing sen­si­bil­i­ty into their lat­est creation.

Orig­i­nal co-screen­writer Hamp­ton Fanch­er is on board – along with Michael Green – to pen the script, which will be based on an idea from Fanch­er and Rid­ley Scott, who takes an exec­u­tive pro­duc­er role here. The expe­ri­ence of this pro­duc­tion team will no doubt quash some con­cerns among fans, though per­haps sig­nif­i­cant­ly it has yet to be announced who will score the film. Van­ge­lis’ orig­i­nal sound­track was an inte­gral part of Blade Run­ner, com­ple­ment­ing the neo-noir aes­thet­ic with an omi­nous syn­the­sis of clas­sic and elec­tron­ic sounds, and it will be inter­est­ing to see which direc­tion Vil­leneuve decides to go.

In terms of cast­ing, Har­ri­son Ford is set to reprise his role as spe­cial agent Rick Deckard (although not until the third act of the movie) while Ryan Gosling will play the sequel’s pro­tag­o­nist. If Ford can bring the same lev­els of enthu­si­asm and charis­ma to Deckard 2.0 as he did with Han Solo’s return in Star Wars: The Force Awak­ens, and Gosling can chan­nel the inten­si­ty of his Dri­ve and Only God For­gives per­for­mances, then we’re in for a treat.

So what else can we expect? Well, no script details have been released as yet, although it’s been revealed that the sto­ry will be set sev­er­al decades after the orig­i­nal, thus sur­pass­ing a nor­mal Replicant’s sup­posed life span of four years. This has stoked up the peren­ni­al debate over whether Deckard is in fact human or a Repli­cant, a mat­ter which, tan­ta­lis­ing­ly, Vil­leneuve has promised to address.

What are your hopes for Blade Run­ner 2? Let us know @LWLies