Michelle Yeoh will lead Blade Runner 2099

Michelle Yeoh continues her post-Oscar hot streak landing the lead of Blade Runner 2099, the Prime Video sequel series to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (which was a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner). That’s basically all we know about the show so far, besides the fact that Scott is producing, Silka Luisa (Shining Girls, Halo) is showrunning, and Jonathan van Tulleken (Shōgun) is directing the first two episodes, per Deadline. Oh, and production recently began in Prague. Otherwise, whatever is happening 50 years in the future of the Blade Runner universe remains a mystery—for now.

We’ve noted before that it’s a little ironic for Amazon Prime Video to be tackling a Blade Runner spin-off, given the series’ themes of capitalist dystopia under a giant, oppressive corporation. But Prime Video is in the business of Philip K. Dick adaptations (Blade Runner is based on his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). The streamer hosts both The Man In The High Castle and the anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (the latter was a co-production with Channel 4 in the UK). The giant, oppressive corporation has also produced a surprising amount of anticapitalist content: The Boys, I’m A Virgo, and Fallout all present political viewpoints that can easily be projected onto Amazon’s infamously exploitative business practices. Of course, producing popular television series is probably helping, rather than hurting, Amazon’s bottom line, so it’s not remotely an act of valor. Still, it’s interesting to note.

Anyway, onto a figure in this story you can actually root for—Michelle Yeoh, whose star turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once finally put the spotlight on what an incredible physical and dramatic actor she is. Recently, she’s appeared in the canceled-after-one-season series American Born Chinese and The Brothers Sun. But her upcoming schedule is chock-full of A-list projects, including Wicked, the Star Trek: Discovery spin-off film Star Trek: Section 31, several Avatar sequels, and of course, Blade Runner 2099.