Hunter Schafer and Michelle Yeoh are heading into a future where humans are no longer in charge.
The two stars lead Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099, and new details are finally giving fans a clearer idea of what to expect from the long-awaited series.
Set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, the series picks up after a massive replicant uprising that completely changed Los Angeles.
“The war has happened and the humans have lost,” showrunner Silka Luisa revealed to Entertainment Weekly. Replicants are now the city’s power brokers, while humans have become second-class citizens.
Who Are Hunter Schafer and Michelle Yeoh Playing?
Schafer plays Cora, a human fugitive who has spent her life running from Blade Runners. Now, in a major reversal, she has to pretend to be one.
“Hunter is playing a human who is a fugitive and has spent her life running from Blade Runners,” Luisa continued. “And now has to pretend to be one.”
After years spent simply trying to survive, Cora has also lost touch with her own humanity, leaving the series to explore whether she can find it again.
Meanwhile, our favorite Wicked Witch stars as Olwen, a replicant Blade Runner hunting a group of missing rogue replicants. Making things even more complicated, Olwen is in the final days of her predetermined lifespan and knows exactly when she is going to die.
Cora and Olwen eventually team up to investigate the missing replicants, putting a human pretending to be a Blade Runner alongside an actual replicant Blade Runner. What could go wrong?
Welcome to ‘Sunshine Noir’
Blade Runner 2099 is also getting a visual makeover.
Rather than recreating the rain-soaked darkness of the original, Luisa describes the new series as “sunshine noir.” The story will venture toward Santa Monica and the coast, bringing a hotter and brighter look to the franchise while maintaining its gritty futuristic world.
The series will also draw inspiration from Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the novel that inspired the original Blade Runner, as it expands parts of the universe the films haven’t explored.
After being announced five years ago, Blade Runner 2099 is finally expected to premiere on Prime Video later in 2026.
Hunter Schafer Is Staying Booked and Busy
Blade Runner 2099 arrives at a busy moment for Schafer, who recently wrapped her run as Jules Vaughn in the third and final season of Euphoria, the HBO series that launched her acting career in 2019.
Since breaking out on the series, Schafer has quickly built an impressive résumé that includes The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the horror film Cuckoo and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness.
Most recently, she appeared alongside Anne Hathaway in Mother Mary, and she already has several projects lined up after Blade Runner 2099. Schafer is set to appear in Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven, as well as the upcoming films Fish and Palette. She is also part of Hideo Kojima’s horror game OD.